F. What was the end of Kühn, or the “bold?”
C. We know not; but they who “draw back unto perdition” are punished above all others.
F. What are we to learn from the whole?
C. The blessedness of being taken into the Church in our infancy; and our need of prayer and watching, lest we turn it into a curse.
The King and his Servants.
A great king once called his servants to him, and said to them,—“You have all often professed to love me, and to wish to serve me; and I have never yet made trial of you. But now I am about to try you all, that it may be known who does in truth desire to serve me, and who is a servant only in name. To morrow your trial will begin; so meet me here in the morning, and be ready to set out upon a journey on which I shall send you.”
When the king had so spoken, he left them; and there was a great deal of bustle and talking amongst these servants. Not that they were all alike. Some were very
busy, and said a great deal of the services they should render; and that they hoped it would be some really hard trial on which the king would set them. Others were quiet and thoughtful, saying little or nothing, but, as it seemed, thinking silently of the words the king had spoken, as if they feared lest they should fail in their trial. For they loved that king greatly; he had been as a father to them all. Once they had been slaves, and cruelly treated by a wicked tyrant who had taken them prisoners, and cast some of them into dungeons, and made others work in dark mines, and dealt evil with them all. But the king had triumphed over this their enemy, and rescued them from his hands. His own son had sought them in the dungeons and dark pits into which they had been cast, and had brought them out; and now he had given them places in his service, and fed them from his own kingly table; and he promised to such as were
faithful, that he would raise them yet higher; that he would even set them upon thrones, and put crowns upon their heads; and that they should remain always in his presence, and rule and dwell with him. Now, when the time of their trial was come, these faithful servants were grave and thoughtful, fearing lest they should fail, and be led to forget him their kind and gracious king. But one thought held them up. He had said unto them all, “As your day, so shall your strength be.” They knew, therefore, that he would put on them no task beyond their strength. They remembered his kindness and his love in taking them out of the dungeons of the enemy. They desired greatly to serve him; and so they rejoiced that their trial was come, even while they feared it; and they trusted in him to help them, even whilst they trembled for themselves.
These servants spent much of the night in preparing for their journey; in thinking