FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   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   >>   >|  
ntle mair nor that to please you." And again the tears filled her blue eyes as she held out her hand--receiving in it a shilling which Mr Cowie, for more relief to his own burdened heart, had substituted for the sixpence. "It's a shillin', sir!" she said, looking up at him with the coin lying on her open palm. "Weel, what for no? Is a shillin' no a saxpence?" "Ay, sir. It's twa." "Weel, Annie," said the old man, suddenly elevated into prophecy for the child's need--for he had premeditated nothing of the sort--"maybe whan God offers us a saxpence, it may turn oot to be twa. Good nicht, my bairn." But Mr Cowie was sorely dissatisfied with himself. For not only did he perceive that the heart of the child could not be thus satisfied, but he began to feel something new stirring in his own bosom. The fact was that Annie was further on than Mr Cowie. She was a child looking about to find the face of her Father in heaven: he was but one of God's babies, who had been lying on his knees, receiving contentedly and happily the good things he gave him, but never looking up to find the eyes of him from whom the good gifts came. And now the heart of the old man, touched by the motion of the child's heart--yearning after her Father in heaven, and yet scarcely believing that he could be so good as her father on earth--began to stir uneasily within him. And he went down on his knees and hid his face in his hands. But Annie, though not satisfied, went away comforted. After such a day of agony and humiliation, Mr Cowie's kiss came gracious with restoration and blessing. It had something in it which was not in Mr Brown's sermon. And yet if she had gone to Mr Brown, she would have found him kind too--very kind; but solemnly kind--severely kind; his long saintly face beaming with religious tenderness--not human cordiality; and his heart full of interest in her spiritual condition, not sympathy with the unhappiness which his own teaching had produced; nay, rather inclined to gloat over this unhappiness as the sign of grace bestowed and an awakening conscience. But notwithstanding the comfort Mr Cowie had given her--the best he had, poor man!--Annie's distress soon awoke again. To know that she could not be near God in peace and love without fulfilling certain mental conditions--that he would not have her just as she was now, filled her with an undefined but terribly real misery, only the more distressing that it was vague wit
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
unhappiness
 

Father

 

heaven

 
satisfied
 

shillin

 

receiving

 

filled

 

saxpence

 

saintly

 

condition


solemnly

 
severely
 

interest

 
cordiality
 
tenderness
 

religious

 

beaming

 

spiritual

 

humiliation

 

comforted


gracious

 

sympathy

 

restoration

 

blessing

 

sermon

 
fulfilling
 

mental

 

conditions

 

distressing

 

misery


undefined

 

terribly

 
distress
 

inclined

 

teaching

 

produced

 

bestowed

 

comfort

 

notwithstanding

 

awakening


conscience
 
father
 

sorely

 

dissatisfied

 

relief

 
burdened
 

substituted

 
perceive
 
sixpence
 

prophecy