One day a man was arrested for stealing a sheep. The man claimed that the sheep was his own, that it had been missing from his flock for some days, but as soon as he saw the animal he knew him.
The other man claimed the sheep, and said he had owned him since he was a lamb, and that he had never been away from the flock.
The judge was puzzled how to decide the matter. At last he sent for the sheep. He first took the man in whose possession the sheep was found to the courtyard, and told him to call the sheep.
The animal made no response, only to raise his head and look frightened, as if in a strange place and among strangers.
Bidding the officers take the man back to the court-room, he told them to bring down the defendant. The accused man did not wait until he entered the yard, but at the gate, and where the sheep could not see him, he began a peculiar call. At once the sheep bounded toward the gate, and by his actions showed that a familiar voice was calling.
“His own knows him,” said the judge. (Text.)
(3201)
TESTIMONY, FRUIT OF
James Henry Potts, D.D., in his book, “The Upward Leading,” relates this incident:
An obscure Highland boy, whose parents had taught him to revere God, became a marine on board a British man-of-war. When a battle raged and the deck was swept by a tremendous broadside from the enemy, the captain, James Haldane, a profane man, ordered another company on deck to take the place of the dead. At sight of the mangled remains of their comrades, the marines became panic-stricken and ungovernable. The captain raved at them, condemning them all to the tortures of hell.