FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161  
162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   >>   >|  
rtune harder to bear than bad." Dorothy ran to put her bonnet on. The curate went back to the bedside. Mr. Drake had again turned his face to the wall. "Sixty years of age!" he was murmuring to himself. "Mr. Drake," said Wingfold, "so long as you bury yourself with the centipedes in your own cellar, instead of going out into God's world, you are tempting Satan and Mammon together to come and tempt you. Worship the God who made the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the mines of iron and gold, by doing His will in the heart of them. Don't worship the poor picture of Him you have got hanging up in your closet;--worship the living power beyond your ken. Be strong in Him whose is your strength, and all strength. Help Him in His work with His own. Give life to His gold. Rub the canker off it, by sending it from hand to hand. You must rise and bestir yourself. I will come and see you again to-morrow. Good-by for the present." He turned away and walked from the room. But his hand had scarcely left the lock, when he heard the minister alight from his bed upon the floor. "He'll do!" said the curate to himself, and walked down the stair. When he got home, he left Dorothy with his wife, and going to his study, wrote the following verses, which had grown in his mind as he walked silent beside her:-- WHAT MAN IS THERE OF YOU? The homely words, how often read! How seldom fully known! "Which father of you, asked for bread, Would give his son a stone?" How oft has bitter tear been shed, And heaved how many a groan, Because Thou wouldst not give for bread The thing that was a stone! How oft the child Thou wouldst have fed, Thy gift away has thrown! He prayed, Thou heardst, and gav'st the bread: He cried, it is a stone! Lord, if I ask in doubt or dread Lest I be left to moan-- I am the man who, asked for bread, Would give his son a stone. As Dorothy returned from the rectory, where Helen had made her happier than all the money by the kind words she said to her, she stopped at Mr. Jones' shop, and bought of him a bit of loin of mutton. "Shan't I put it down, miss?" he suggested, seeing her take out her purse.--Helen had just given her the purse: they had had great fun, with both tears and laughter over it. "I would rather not--thank you very much," she replied with a smile. He gave her a kind, searching glance, and took the money. That day Juliet
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161  
162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Dorothy

 

walked

 

worship

 
wouldst
 
strength
 

curate

 
turned
 

Because

 

seldom

 

Juliet


heaved
 

searching

 

father

 

replied

 

glance

 
bitter
 

heardst

 

happier

 

homely

 
rectory

stopped

 
suggested
 

bought

 

returned

 

prayed

 

laughter

 

mutton

 
thrown
 

heaven

 

Worship


tempting

 

Mammon

 

closet

 

living

 

hanging

 

picture

 

bedside

 

bonnet

 

harder

 

centipedes


cellar

 

murmuring

 

Wingfold

 

alight

 

silent

 

verses

 
minister
 

canker

 

sending

 

strong