"No; I haven"t been in a pa.s.sion, papa, and I hope if I had, I wouldn"t have been deceitful enough to try to hide it from you. But oh I"ve been very, very naughty two or three times in other ways, you know; and you were so good to forgive me and keep on loving me in spite of it all."
"Dear child!" was all he said in reply, accompanying the words with a tender caress.
"I, too, have come a good deal short of my resolves," observed Max, with a regretful sigh. "Yet I suppose we have both done better than we should if we hadn"t made good resolutions."
"No doubt of it," said his father. "I feel it to be so in my case, though I, too, have fallen far short of the standard I set myself. But shall we not try again, my children?"
"Oh yes, sir, yes!"
"And try, not only to make the new year better--if we are spared to see it--but also the three remaining days of the old?"
"Yes," sighed Lulu, "perhaps I may get into a dreadful pa.s.sion yet before the year is out."
"I hope not, daughter," her father said; "but watch and pray, for only so can you be safe. There is One who is able to keep you from falling.
Cling close to Him like the limpet to the rock."
"Oh I will!" she replied in an earnest tone. "But papa what is a limpet?
I don"t remember ever having heard of it before."
"It is a sh.e.l.l-fish of which there are numerous species exhibiting great variety of form and color. The common limpet is most abundant on the rocky coasts of Britain. They live on the rocks between low and high tide marks.
"They move about when the water covers them, but when the tide is out, remain firmly fixed to one spot; so firmly that unless surprised by a sudden seizure, it is almost impossible to drag or tear them from the rock without breaking the sh.e.l.l."
"How can they hold so tight?" asked Max.
"The animal has a round or oval muscular foot by which it clings, and its ability to do so is increased by a viscous or sticky secretion."
"Please tell some more about them, papa," requested Lulu, looking greatly interested. "Have they mouths? and do you know what they eat?"
"Yes, they have mouths and they live on seaweed, eating it by means of a long ribbon-like tongue covered with rows of hard teeth; the common limpet--which, as I have told you, lives on the British coast--has no fewer than one hundred and sixty rows, twelve teeth in a row. How many does that make, Max?"
"Nineteen hundred and twenty," answered the lad after a moment"s thought.
"Right," said his father. "The tongue when not in use, lies folded deep in the interior of the limpet."
"Are their sh.e.l.ls pretty, papa?" Lulu asked.
"Those of some of the limpets of warmer climates are very beautiful," he answered; "large too. I have seen them on the western coast of South America, a foot wide; so large that they are often used as basins."
"Oh I"d like to have one!" she exclaimed. "Is it for their sh.e.l.ls people try to pull them off the rocks?"
"It may be so in some instances, but the limpet is used for food and also as bait, by the fisherman.
"Try, my children, to remember what I have been telling you about it; but most of all let your thoughts dwell upon the lesson to be drawn from its close clinging to the rock.
"G.o.d is often spoken of in the Scriptures as his people"s rock, because he is their strength, their refuge, their asylum, as the rocks were in those places whither the children of Israel retired in case of an unexpected attack from their foes.
"David says; "The Lord is my rock and my fortress.... Who is a rock save our G.o.d?"
"Jesus is the rock on which we must build our hope of salvation; any other foundation will be as the sand upon which the foolish man built his house; "and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it."
"The limpet is wiser; it never trusts to the shifting sand, but holds firmly to the immovable rock. Be like it in resisting all attempts whether of human or spiritual foes, to drag you from your Rock."
"Papa," said Max, slowly and with some hesitation. "I wish to do so--I think it is my settled purpose--but I--I feel afraid that sometime I may let go. I"m a careless, heedless fellow you know, and--and I"m afraid I may forget to hold fast to Jesus, and be overcome by some sudden and great temptation."
"There is danger of that, my boy," the captain returned with feeling, "yet I should have greater fear for you if I heard you talk in a self-confident and boasting spirit. Trusting in ourselves we are not safe, but trusting in Jesus we are. We are safe only while we cling to our sure foundation, the Rock Christ Jesus; but our greatest security is in the joyful fact that he holds us fast and will never let us go; if we have indeed given ourselves to him.
"He says, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.""
"Such sweet words, papa, aren"t they?" Lulu said softly.
"Yes, words that have been an untold comfort and support to many of G.o.d"s dear children on their way Zionward. The sword of the Spirit with which they have fought Satan"s lying a.s.sertion that they might yet be lost in spite of having fled for refuge to Him who died on Calvary."
"Is it those words the Bible means when it speaks of the sword of the Spirit, papa?" asked Max.
"Not those alone, but _all_ the word of G.o.d. And in order to be prepared to wield that sword we must store our memories with the word, we must hide it in our hearts. David says, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
"Christ is our pattern; we must strive to follow his example in all things; and it was with the sword of the Spirit he repelled every temptation of the devil there in the wilderness--beginning each reply to the evil suggestions with "It is written.""
"That is why you have us learn so many Bible verses, papa?"
"Yes; open the Bible lying on the table there, Max, and turn to the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy."
Max did so, then read, by his father"s direction, the sixth and seventh verses.
"And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
"I think you obey that command, papa," said Lulu; "indeed I think you try to obey every command in G.o.d"s word."
"I do," he replied, "and I want my children to follow my example in that. In the eleventh chapter of the same book the command is repeated and these words are added, "That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth."
"Speaking of the law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandments of the Lord, the psalmist tells us that, "in keeping of them there is great reward."
"True happiness is known by none but those who are at peace with G.o.d; but living in the light of his countenance, one may be full of joy even in the midst of great earthly tribulation.
"Ah, my darlings, I can wish nothing better for you than that you may thus live!"
At that moment Violet joined them.
"The babies were unusually wakeful and troublesome to-night," she remarked, "but have at last fallen asleep and so released mamma from attendance upon them."
"To our great content," added her husband, gently putting Lulu off his knee and rising to give his wife a seat, while Max sprang up and gallantly placed a chair for her; selecting the most comfortable and placing it close beside his father"s.
She thanked him with one of her sweetest smiles, the captain remarking, "Max was too quick for me that time."
"Like his father, he is extremely polite and attentive to ladies," said Violet. "How cosy you are here! and you two children have been having a pleasant time, no doubt, with papa all to yourselves."
"We have missed you, my dear," said her husband; "at least I may speak for myself."