Produced by Heiko Evermann, Marcia Brooks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain works at the University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) THE CITIES OF REFUGE. [Illustration: The Man-Slayer] THE CITIES OF REFUGE: OR, The Name of Jesus. A SUNDAY BOOK FOR THE YOUNG. BY REV. JOHN R. MACDUFF, D.D., AUTHOR OF "MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," "MEMORIES OF BETHANY," "MIND AND WORDS OF JESUS," ETC., ETC. "How sweet the NAME of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear." NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, No. 530 BROADWAY. 1865. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, This little book contains, with a few additions, the substance of what was spoken one Sabbath to a number of hearers of your own age. It may serve to recall to those that listened to it, and to unfold to those who did not, some simple and well-known, but precious gospel truths. May He whose NAME it is designed to exalt, bless you in reading it, and enable you from the heart to repeat as your own happy experience, the well-known verse of the beautiful hymn I have put on the title-page. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you."--NUM. xxxv. 9-11. I. When travelling lately through the Simplon--one of the great Alpine passes leading from Switzerland into Italy--I observed, close by the roadside, at regular distances, a number of plain, square buildings. On these (sometimes over the doorway, sometimes on the side) were inscribed the words--"REFUGE No. 1," "REFUGE No. 2," "REFUGE No. 3," &c. I think there were twenty altogether. I was told, on inquiry, they were intended as shelters for any hapless travellers who might be overtaken by the sudden storms which so often sweep down from the snow-white mountains bounding the prospect. These "_Refuges_," at the time I saw them, were empty, for it was in the beginning of summer, when everything, even in that elevated region, was looking bright and green. The Alpine rhododendron was flushing, with its pink blossom, the mountain sides; or growing up, along with the lovely blue gentian, close by stray patches of winter's snow which were still filling the ridges and hollows in the higher parts of the pass. Seldom at this season are travellers exposed to any peril from an Alpine storm. It is different, however, in winter or spring, when the avalanches come tumbling from the heights, or the snow is drifting in huge masses over that wonderful Road. Many shivering wayfarers have fled with thankful hearts into these shelters. Some have been carried thither, in a state of insensibility, by unknown benefactors, and on gradually awaking to consciousness, have blessed the