It is a day for worship, for rest, for peace, and for loving ministrations for others, and you will find that "in keeping His Commandments there is great reward." [Illustration] [Illustration] XIX. THE POTTER'S VESSEL THOSE who have visited the East tell us that even to-day the potter still sits at his work, making jars and jugs to carry the precious water from the wells. Now we must suppose ourselves entering the little courtyard where the potter sits at work, or bending our heads to enter the shady little building or shed, where the rays of the mid-day sun cannot reach him. He has just brought a lump of clay, and placed it on the middle of his wheel, and with his feet, he gives the wheel a twist, and begins to mould the great lump of clay into a round sort of mass. [Illustration: THE POTTER'S WHEEL.] So the visitor ventures to say: "May I ask what you are making, sir?" And the potter looks up, with a half-smile, as he answers: "I am going to make a lovely jar," and then his feet twist the wheel round and round, and the visitor stands by watching. The potter puts his thumb into the place where the neck of the jar will be, and as he twists and moulds, the visitor sees before his eyes the ugly bit of clay coming into an elegant shape. At length the jar is done, and the visitor asks another question. "What will you do, now?" he says. "I shall paint it with beautiful colours—" "And then?" "Then I shall put it into the oven and bake it, so that the shape and the colours will stand fast." The visitor hesitates. At length, he asks, "You do not make them all alike? Some are plain and homely; some are beautiful, and I suppose costly?" The potter smiles, as he rises and places his jar on a shelf out of harm's way. "Well, sir," he says, "it's just as I choose to make them! Some are so precious in my eyes that I love to look at them; some turn out so badly, that I have to mould the clay over again. Just as I like, sir; just as I like! It is my clay, and my work; but I want the pieces that I make, to come out beautiful and lovely." [Illustration: I shall paint it with beautiful colours.] So the potter takes another lump of clay, and goes to his wheel again; and the visitor, thanking him very much for his kindness, turns away thoughtfully. Had he not read somewhere in his Bible about the Clay and the Potter? "Yes," he said to himself at length. "It was in Jeremiah, and when I get back to my Hotel, I will look it up." And he found what he wanted, in the 18th Chapter of Jeremiah, where the Lord told the Prophet to go down to the potter's house, that He might tell him there, what he was to say to the Jewish people, who at that time were sadly disobedient, and had turned away from God. So Jeremiah went down to the Potter's house; and behold, he was making something on his wheel.