Sometimes in winter the sheep suffer greatly from the cold and heavy snowstorms. This is a description of sheep covered by the snow in winter:-- "The flock was buried Beneath a great white billow as high as a barn and as broad as a house. This great drift was rolling and curling beneath the violent blast, tufting and combing with rustling swirls, and carved as if patterns of cornice where the grooving-chisel of the wind swept round. Ever and again the tempest snatched little whiffs from the channeled edges, twirled them round and made them dance over the chine of the monster pile, then let them lie like herringbones or the seams of the sand where the tide has been. And all the while, from the smothery sky, more and more fiercely at every blast, came the pelting pitiless arrows winged with murky white and pointed with the barbs of the frost."--_Blackmore_ [End illustration] {313} GRACIOUS SAVIOUR, HOLY SHEPHERD Gracious Saviour, holy Shepherd, Little ones are dear to Thee; Gathered with Thine arms, and carried In Thy bosom, may they be Sweetly, fondly, safely tended, From all want and danger free. Let Thy holy words instruct them; Fill their minds with heavenly light; Let Thy love and grace constrain them To approve whate'er is right; Let them feel Thy yoke is easy, Let them prove Thy burden light. Taught to lisp Thy holy praises Which on earth Thy children sing, With both lips and hearts, unfeigned, Glad thank-offering may they bring; Then with all Thy saints in glory Join to praise their Lord and King. --_Jane E. Leeson and J. Whittemore_. {314} IN HEAVENLY LOVE ABIDING In heavenly love abiding, No change my heart shall fear, And safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here. The storm may roar without me, My heart may low be laid; But God is round about me, And can I be dismayed? Wherever He may guide me, No want shall turn me back; My Shepherd is beside me, And nothing can I lack. His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim, He knows the way He taketh, And I will walk with Him. Green pastures are before me, Which yet I have not seen; Bright skies will soon be o'er me, Where darkest clouds have been. My hope I cannot measure, My path to life is free; My Saviour has my treasure, And He will walk with me. --_Anna L. Waring_. {315} THE KING OF LOVE The King of love my Shepherd is, Whose goodness faileth never; I nothing lack if I am His, And He is mine forever. Where streams of living water flow My ransomed soul He leadeth, And where the verdant pastures grow, With food celestial feedeth. Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, But yet in love He sought me, And on His shoulder gently laid, And home, rejoicing, brought me.