WHEN on a narrow bridle path cut out on the face of a precipitous ridge, Dr Duff, the famous missionary, when in Tibet, observed a native shepherd with his flock following him as usual. The man frequently stopped and looked back. If he saw a sheep creeping up too far on the one hand, or coming too near the edge of the dangerous precipice, on the other, he would go back and apply his crook to one of the hind legs and gently pull it back, till it joined the rest. Though a Grampian Highlander, Dr Duff saw for the first time the real use of the crook or shepherd’s staff in directing sheep in the right way. Going up to the shepherd, he noticed that he had a long rod which was as tall as himself, and around the lower half a thick band of iron was twisted. The region was infested with wolves, hyenas, and other dangerous animals, which in the night-time were apt to prowl about the place where the sheep lay. Then the man would go with his long rod, and would strike the animal such a blow as to make it at least turn away. This brought to the traveller’s remembrance the expression of David, the shepherd, in the Twenty-third Psalm, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”—the staff clearly meaning God’s watchful, guiding, and directing providence, and the rod His omnipotence in defending His own from foes, whether without or within.—Smith’s “Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D.,” p. 243.