Stone Breakers

Stone-Breakers

Stone-breaking often furnishes us with illustrations. A minister once stopped by the roadside where a man was breaking stones. "Ah, my friend," said the minister "you get through your work more quickly than I do with mine; for, you must know, I'm in the same line of business that you are." The man looked up and said, "I see what you mean, sir. You are trying and trying to break stony hearts, and I am breaking these stones one after another. I think the reason you don't succeed is because you don't go to work as I do." "How's that?" asked the minister. "Why," said the man, "you see, sir, I go down on my knees to break these stones." Yes, the poor stone-breaker was right: the only way to break hard hearts is to go down on our knees, and intercede with God for them.

Some stone-breakers are of a very different kind. I mean those gentlemen who go out with a little hammer and a bag, searching for geological specimens. They climb about among the rocks, and chip away at them, knocking off little bits here and there, quite enjoying the work; and, at the same time, the man from the workhouse sits breaking his heap of stones, and doesn't think it at all an enjoyable occupation. There is all the difference in the world between doing what you are obliged to do, and doing what you choose to do. Some persons engage in Christian work because if they did not do so, "Mrs. Grundy" would talk; others do it because it is to them delightsome work to serve the Lord.

What different opinions people have about things! I have heard a story of a geologist travelling in Scotland, hunting for specimens. He was quite an enthusiast; and as he explored and examined the various strata, he would knock off a piece here and a piece there, and then examine it, and put it into his bag, saying, "I believe that's just such a specimen as is described in 'Lyell's Principles of Geology.'" Well, he had filled his bag after a good deal of pleasant toil; and as it was rather heavy, he got a Highlander to carry it on for him to the station. Sandy was lazy and the bag was heavy; so he opened the bag and looked inside. Seeing they were only a few bits of stones and lumps of rock, he shot them all out by the roadside, and walked on with the empty bag. He knew there was a newly-macadamized piece of road near the station, and when he got there he just filled up the bag with road-stones. The geologist's state of mind, when he looked into the bag, "may be better imagined than described." To turn to serious matters: how easy some people think it is to imitate a Christian character, and indeed it may appear so; but in the end nothing will be hid: the mask will be torn off.