“While my thoughts were engaged in this manner, I saw in the valley beneath me, a large animal running very swiftly through the bushes. At first I thought it was an ass that had strayed, but looking stedfastly at it, I saw it was a great bear followed by some hunters. The bear ran into the wood by the side of the lake, followed by the huntsmen and their dogs; presently I heard two guns fired, and I concluded that the bear was killed.
“‘This,’ thought I, ‘reminds me of the end of the wicked man. He, like that wild beast, for a time, goes about seeking what he may devour; he hides himself from the eyes of the world, as that beast did in the wood, and thinks he is quite safe. But God sees the sinner, and knows the proper time for punishing him; and, if he does not forsake his evil ways and turn to the Lord, he will be stricken, and perish without remedy. But those who love the Lord, and fear Him, are kept from harm; and the wicked, although more fierce and cruel than the lion, the tiger, or the bear, are not suffered to touch them; because, in the way in which they go,----’”
_Andrew._ Stop a moment, John; I will shew you the text in the Bible: here it is--in Isaiah, the 35th chapter. The prophet is speaking of the church of Christ, and he says, “An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, _The Way of Holiness_; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those (that is, the ransomed of the Lord:) the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.”
_John._ Yes, that is the passage which I remembered when I saw the bear. After resting myself, I began again to search for mushrooms and fungus, and I have reason to be thankful that I was pretty successful: my pack lies yonder in the wood, full of the finest mushrooms I ever saw. To be sure, I did not get them without trouble; I climbed several trees, and had to creep up and down some very steep places. At last I was benighted, and the moon had risen, when I found myself in the narrow path which leads through the midst of the wood, by the spring yonder. I was quite tired, so I sat down to rest; just as I was rising, I heard something rustling among the bushes; I did not stir, and presently I saw the great bear which I had seen in the morning, coming towards the spring.