'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency ofthe power may be of God, and not of us.'—2 Cor 4:7
'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways myways, saith the Lord.'—Isaiah 55:8.
'Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as thewings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellowgold.'—Psalm 68:13.
When the Philistine giant, Goliath, mocked the host of Israel,and challenged any of their stern warriors to single combat, whathuman being could have imagined that the gigantic heathen would besuccessfully met in the mortal struggle by a youth 'ruddy and ofa fair countenance?' who unarmed, except with a sling and a stone,gave the carcases of the hosts of the Philistines to the fouls ofthe air, and to the wild beasts of the earth.'
Who, upon seeing an infant born in a stable, and laid in a manger,or beholding him when a youth working with his father as a carpenter,could have conceived that he was the manifestation of the Deityin human form, before whom every knee should bow, and every tongueconfess Him to be THE ETERNAL?
Father Michael, a Franciscan friar, on a journey to Ancona,having lost his way, sought direction from a wretched lad keepinghogs—deserted, forlorn, his back smarting with severe stripes,and his eyes suffused with tears. The poor ragged boy not only wentcheerfully with him to point out his road, but besought the monkto take him into his convent, volunteering to fulfill the mostdegrading services, in the hope of procuring a little learning,and escaping from 'those filthy hogs.' How incredulously would thefriar have listened to anyone who could have suggested that thisdesolate, tattered, dirty boy, might and would fill a greater thanan imperial throne! Yet, eventually that swine-herd was clothedin purple and fine linen, and, under the title of Pope Sixtus V.,became one of those mighty magicians who are described in RogersItaly, as
'Setting their feet upon the necks of kings,
And through the worlds subduing, chaining down
The free, immortal spirit—theirs a wondrous spell.' [1]
A woman that was 'a loose and ungodly wretch' hearing a tinker ladmost awfully cursing and swearing, protested to him that 'he sworeand cursed at that most fearful rate that it made her tremble tohear him,' 'that he was the ungodliest fellow for swearing thatever she heard in all her life,' and 'that he was able to spoilall the youth in a whole town, if they came in his company.' Thisblow at the young reprobate made that indelible impression which allthe sermons yet he had heard had failed to make. Satan, by one ofhis own slaves, wounded a conscience which had resisted all theovertures of mercy. The youth pondered her words in his heart;they were good seed strangely sown, and their working formed oneof those mysterious steps which led the foul-mouthed b