"You needn"t have drunk the wine."
"Why shouldn"t I? Mrs. Laval gave it to me; I couldn"t be rude."
"But that is not keeping your promise."
"I made no promise about it. I could do nothing in the world for temperance _there_, Tilly. What would Mrs. Laval care for anything _I_ should say?"
"But, Maria!" said her little sister, looking puzzled and troubled at once--"you cannot drink wine in one place, and try to hinder people from drinking it in another place."
"Why can"t I? It all depends on the place, Tilly, and the people."
"And the wine, I suppose," said Matilda, severely.
"Yes!" said Maria, boldly, "I dare say, if all wine was like that, Mr.
Richmond would have no objection to it."
"I don"t see, Maria," said her sister, "what you made those promises for the other night. I think you ought not to have got up at all; it was the same as speaking; and if you do not mean to keep promises, you should not make them."
"And what have you got to do with it?" said Maria in her turn. "You did not stand up with the rest of us; you have no business to lecture other people that are better than yourself. I am going to keep all the promises I ever made; but I did not engage to go poking into Mrs. Dow"s wash kitchen, nor to be rude to Mrs. Laval; and I don"t mean to do the one or the other, I give you notice."
Matilda drew another of the long breaths that had come so many times that afternoon, and presently remarked that she was glad the next meeting of the Band would come in a few days.
Maria sharply inquired, "Why?"
"Because," said Matilda, "I hope Mr. Richmond will talk to us. I don"t understand about things."
"Of course you don"t!" said Maria; "and if I were you I would not be so wise, till I did "understand.""
Matilda got into bed, and Maria sat down to finish putting the braid on her dress.
"Tilly, what are you going to get with your twenty-five dollars?"
"I don"t know yet."
"I don"t know whether I shall get a watch, or a dress, like Anne; or something else. What would you?"
"I don"t know."
"What _are_ you going to get with your money, Matilda?"
"I can"t tell, Maria. I know what I am going to do with part; but I don"t know what I am going to do with the other part."
Maria could get no more from her.
Nothing new happened in the family before the evening came for what Maria called the "Band meeting." Matilda went about between home and the school extremely quiet and demure, and reserved rather more than ordinary; but reserve was Matilda"s way. Only Maria knew, and it irritated her, that her little sister was careful to lock herself up alone with her Bible, or rather with somebody else"s Bible, for Matilda had none of her own, for a good long time every morning and evening.
Maria thought sometimes she knew of her doing the same thing at the noon recess. She said nothing, but she watched. And her watching made her certain of it. Matilda unlocked her door and came out always with a face of quiet seriousness and a spirit in armour. Maria could not provoke her (and she tried); nor could any other temptations or difficulties, that she could see, shake a certain steady gentleness with which Matilda went through them. Matilda was never a pa.s.sionate child, but she had been pleasure-loving and wayward. That was changing now; and Matilda was giving earnest care to her school-work.
The desired evening for the "Band meeting" came, and the young people all went duly to the lecture-room; though Maria reminded her sisters that they did not belong there. Let.i.tia and Anne chose to go in spite of that fact. The room, though not full, was filled towards the upper end; so the party were divided, and it happened that Matilda placed herself apart from her sisters, in the front, at the end of a seat near to Mr. Richmond. He was there already, standing by the little desk.
After the prayer and singing, Mr. Richmond declared that they were come together for a talk; and he meant to make it a talk. He should ask questions when he chose, and everybody else might exercise the same liberty.
"We are going to try to understand things," he said; "and by that somewhat vague expression I mean things connected with our covenant that we have made, and the work we have undertaken. Our covenant begins with the words, "We are the servants of Christ." Let us know exactly what we mean. What is it to be a servant of Christ? What is a servant, in the first place?"
There was hesitation; then an answer from somewhere,--"He is somebody who does what he is told."
"That would be a good servant," said Mr. Richmond, smiling; "but it will do. He is one who acts under the will of another, doing the work of another. A servant of Christ--what does he do?--and how does he do it?"
There was no answer this time.
"Let us look," said Mr. Richmond. "In the first verse of the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, Paul calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ; and in the ninth verse he says that he serves "with his spirit." Here is a mark. The service of Christ, you see, is in the first instance, not outward but inward. Not hand work, nor lip work, nor money giving; but service _in the spirit_. What is that?
"It is having your will the same with G.o.d"s will.
"So now look and see. We all pledged ourselves the other night to do a great many sorts of outward service; good in themselves, and right and needful to do. But the first question is, Are we ourselves the servants of Christ? Do we in heart love and obey and agree to His will? If we are not doing that, or trying to do it, our other service is no service at all. It is a lie, and no service at all. Or it is service of ourselves."
Mr. Richmond paused a little.
"I have no reason to think that any of you did not mean true service, when the pledge was given the other night. So now let us see how this true service shows itself.
"Jesus said, you remember, "If any man serve me, let him follow me."
All we have to ask is, How did the Lord himself walk, that we should follow Him? I recommend you to study the story of His life very carefully and very constantly, and be continually getting new lessons from it. But now let us look just at one or two points.
"Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world." Has he commanded us to be anything like that?"
One of the boys answered, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
"How can our light shine?"
"Doing good," another boy answered.
"Being good," said one of the girls.
"Very well; but what is there in doing and being good which has any resemblance to light? What does light do?"
"It shows things," a boy said.
"There"s no darkness where the light comes," said a little girl.
"Quite true; but how does our doing good and being good, "show things"?
What does it show?"
After a little hesitation a voice replied, "It shows what is right."
"It shows what people ought to do," a boy said.
"It shows what is the will of G.o.d about us," said Mr. Richmond; "and the more exactly we are obedient to that will and conformed to it, the more brightly do we give light. And do you see? our light-giving depends on what we _are_. We give no light, except just so far as we are ourselves what G.o.d wills us to be. And then it shines out in all sorts of ways. I knew a little girl whose eyes were like two pure lamps, always; they were so loving and clear and true. I have known several people whose voices gave light as much as harmony; they were so sweet with the tones of a glad heart and a conscience at peace. I have seen faces that shone, almost like angel faces, with the love of G.o.d and the joy of heaven and the love of their fellow-men. Now this is the first thing the Lord calls us to be in His service--His light-bearers.
The light comes from Him; we must get it from Him; and then we must shine! And of course our actions give light too, if they are obedient to the will of G.o.d. A boy who keeps the Sabbath holy is almost as good as a sermon to a boy who doesn"t. One who refuses to touch the offered gla.s.s of wine, shows the light to another who drinks it. A loving answer shames a harsh spirit; and a child faithful to her duties at school is a beacon of truth to her fellows.