"And are you--"
"Yes--yes, I am the man you made. You found me a rough stone from the hand of poverty and bad example. It was you who brushed off the evil, and who first led me to the sweet waters of moral life and happiness.
I have profited by the lesson you gave me in early youth, and the warm spark which your kindness lighted up in my bosom has grown brighter and brighter ever since. With an affluence for life I have settled down to enjoy the remainder of my days in peace and quietness. I heard of your losses and bereavements. Come, I have a home and a heart, and your presence will make them both warmer, brighter, and happier. Come, my more than father--and you my mother, come. You made my youth all bright, and I will not see your old age doomed to darkness."
Jacob Manfred tottered forward and sank upon the bosom of his preserver. He could not speak his thanks, for they were too heavy for words. When he looked up again he sought his wife.
"Susan," he said, in a choking, trembling tone, "my bread has come back to me!"
"Forgive me, Jacob."
"No, no, Susan. It is not I who must forgive--G.o.d holds us in his hand."
"Ah!" murmured the wife, as she raised her streaming eyes to heaven, "I will never doubt him again."
All my griefs by Him are ordered Needful is each one for me, Every tear by Him is counted, One too much there cannot be; And if when they fall so thickly, I can own His way is right, Then each bitter tear of anguish Precious is in Jesus" sight.
Far too well my Saviour loved me To allow my life to be One long, calm, unbroken summer, One unruffled, stormless sea; He would have me fondly nestling Closer to His loving breast, He would have that world seem brighter Where alone is perfect rest.
Though His wise and loving purpose, Once I could not clearly see, I believe with faith unshaken, All will work for good to me; Therefore when my way is gloomy, And my eyes with tears are dim, I will go to G.o.d, my Father, And will tell my griefs to Him.
THE FATHER IS NEAR.
A wee little child in its dreaming one night Was startled by some awful ogre of fright, And called for its father, who quickly arose And hastened to quiet the little one"s woes.
"Dear child, what"s the matter?" he lovingly said, And smoothed back the curls from the fair little head; "Don"t cry any more, there is nothing to fear, Don"t cry any more, for your papa is here."
Ah, well! and how often we cry in the dark, Though G.o.d in His love is so near to us! Hark!
How His loving words, solacing, float to the ear, Saying, "Lo! I am with you: "tis I, do not fear."
G.o.d is here in the world as thy Father and mine, Ever watching and ready with love-words divine.
And while erring oft, through the darkness I hear In my soul the sweet message: "Thy Father is near."
A RIFT IN THE CLOUD.
Andrew Lee came home at evening from the shop where he had worked all day, tired and out of spirits; came home to his wife, who was also tired, and dispirited.
"A smiling wife, and a cheerful home--what a paradise it would be!"
said Andrew to himself as he turned his eyes from the clouded face of Mrs. Lee, and sat down with knitted brow, and a moody aspect.
Not a word was spoken by either. Mrs. Lee was getting supper, and she moved about with a weary step.
"Come," she said at last, with a side glance at her husband.
There was invitation in the word only, none in the voice of Mrs. Lee.
Andrew arose and went to the table. He was tempted to speak an angry word, but controlled himself, and kept silence. He could find no fault with the chop, nor the sweet home-made bread, and fresh b.u.t.ter. They would have cheered the inward man if there had only been a gleam of sunshine on the face of his wife. He noticed that she did not eat.
"Are you not well Mary?" The words were on his lips, but he did not utter them, for the face of his wife looked so repellent, that he feared an irritating reply. And so in moody silence, the twain sat together until Andrew had finished his supper. As he pushed his chair back, his wife arose, and commenced clearing off the table.
"This is purgatory!" said Lee to himself, as he commenced walking the floor of their little breakfast-room, with his hands clasped behind him, and his chin almost touching his breast.
After removing all the dishes and taking them into the kitchen, Mrs.
Lee spread a green cover on the table, and placing a fresh trimmed lamp thereon, went out and shut the door, leaving her husband alone with his unpleasant feelings. He took a long, deep breath as she did so, paused in his walk, stood still for some moments, and then drawing a paper from his pocket, sat down by the table, opened the sheet and commenced reading. Singularly enough the words upon which his eyes rested were, "Praise your wife." They rather tended to increase the disturbance of mind from which he was suffering.
"I should like to find some occasion for praising mine." How quickly his thoughts expressed the ill-natured sentiment. But his eyes were on the page before him, and he read on.
"Praise your wife, man, for pity"s sake, give her a little encouragement; it wont hurt her."
Andrew Lee raised his eyes from the paper and muttered, "Oh, yes.
That"s all very well. Praise is cheap enough. But praise her for what?
For being sullen, and making your home the most disagreeable place in the world?" His eyes fell again to the paper.
"She has made your home comfortable, your hearth bright and shining, your food agreeable; for pity"s sake, tell her you thank her, if nothing more. She don"t expect it; it will make her eyes open wider than they have for ten years; but it will do her good for all that, and you, too."
It seemed to Andrew as if these sentences were written just for him, and just for the occasion. It was the complete answer to his question, "Praise her for what?" and he felt it also as a rebuke. He read no farther, for thought came too busy, and in a new direction. Memory was convicting him of injustice toward his wife. She had always made his home as comfortable as hands could make it, and had he offered the light return of praise or commendation? Had he ever told her of the satisfaction he had known, or the comfort experienced? He was not able to recall the time or the occasion. As he thought thus, Mrs. Lee came in from the kitchen, and taking her work-basket from the closet, placed it on the table, and sitting down without speaking, began to sew. Mr. Lee glanced almost stealthily at the work in her hands, and saw it was the bosom of a shirt, which she was st.i.tching neatly. He knew it was for him that she was at work.
"Praise your wife." The words were before the eyes of his mind, and he could not look away from them. But he was not ready for this yet. He still felt moody and unforgiving. The expression on his wife"s face he interpreted to mean ill-nature, and with ill-nature he had no patience. His eyes fell on the newspaper that spread out before him, and he read the sentence:--
"A kind cheerful word, spoken in a gloomy home, is like the rift in the cloud that lets the sunshine through."
Lee struggled with himself a while longer. His own ill-nature had to be conquered first; his moody, accusing spirit had to be subdued. But he was coming right, and at last got right, as to will. Next came the question as to how he should begin. He thought of many things to say, yet feared to say them, lest his wife should meet his advances with a cold rebuff. At last, leaning towards her, and taking hold of the linen bosom upon which she was at work, he said, in a voice carefully modulated with kindness:--
"You are doing the work very beautifully, Mary."
Mrs. Lee made no reply. But her husband did not fail to observe that she lost, almost instantly, that rigid erectness with which she had been sitting, nor that the motion of her needle had ceased. "My shirts are better made, and whiter than those of any other man in our shop,"
said Lee, encouraged to go on.
"Are they?" Mrs. Lee"s voice was low, and had in it a slight huskiness. She did not turn her face, but her husband saw that she leaned a little toward him. He had broken through the ice of reserve, and all was easy now. His hand was among the clouds, and a few feeble rays were already struggling through the rift it had made.
"Yes, Mary," he answered softly, "and I"ve heard it said more than once, what a good wife Andrew Lee must have."
Mrs. Lee turned her face towards her husband. There was light it it, and light in her eye. But there was something in the expression of the countenance that puzzled him a little.
"Do you think so?" she asked quite soberly.
"What a question!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Andrew Lee, starting up and going around to the side of the table where his wife was sitting.--"What a question, Mary!" he repeated, as he stood before her.
"Do you?" It was all she said.
"Yes, darling," was the warmly-spoken answer, and he stooped down and kissed her.--"How strange that you should ask me such a question!"
"If you would only tell me so now and then, Andrew, it would do me good." And Mrs. Lee arose, and leaning against the manly breast of her husband, stood and wept.
What a strong light broke in upon the mind of Andrew Lee. He had never given to his faithful wife even the small reward of praise for all the loving interest she had manifested daily, until doubt of his love had entered her soul, and made the light thick darkness. No wonder that her face grew clouded, nor that what he considered moodiness and ill-nature took possession of her spirit.