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press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' The other is, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also that love His appearing.””

GRINDING.

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"IN the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, father, it is said, two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left.' Do women ever grind at the mill? I never saw any doing so."

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True, Harry; here is indeed a custom

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peculiar to the East. 'Most families,' says Dr. Shaw, grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable grindstones for that purpose. The uppermost is turned round. by a small handle of wood, or iron, placed in the edge of it, while the corn is poured between them. When this stone is large, or expedition is required, then a second person is called in to assist. It is usual for the women alone to be concerned in this employ, sitting themselves down over against each other, with the millstones between them.' Similar mills were in use in Scotland, till very lately, especially in the Highlands, and were called querns. Pennant, in his Tour, has given a picture of this useful article. Most likely, it was one of these millstones which the woman threw on the head of Abimelech, Judges ix. 53. See also Matt. xviii. 6. As it was essential to the

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comfort and nourishment of the family to have a mill of this kind, God forbade any person to take in pledge the nether or the upper millstone; because, it is expressively added, he taketh a man's life to pledge,' Deut. xxiv. 6.

"It appears from the Scriptures, that there were mills sometimes in prisons, at which the criminals were employed. Samson ground in the prison-house, Judges xvi. 21. See also Lam. v. 13. The prophet Isaiah speaks of grinding corn as the work of a slave, Isaiah xlvii. 2.

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"The women still grind the corn in the East. In the earliest dawn of the morning,' says Forbes, in all the Hindoo towns and villages, the hand-mills are at work; when the menials and widows grind meal sufficient for the daily consumption of the family. There

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