Page images
PDF
EPUB

At length, turning upwards her eyes streaming with tears, and clasping her fond parent's hands, she exclaimed with broken accents, "O my dear mamma, I have been very, very naughty! Do not be angry with me any more! I am very, very sorry for having offended you, and I pray God to forgive me, as well as you, my dear mamma, for my undutiful behaviour! Do you pray to God also for me, that He may pardon me, and prevent my being so naughty again!"

This earnest appeal of her penitent child was more than Mrs. Gracelove could bear. Tears now streamed from her own eyes, but they were tears of thankfulness and joy. She felt at that moment what the poet calls the "luxury of grief;" and if a celestial heart can rejoice under similar circumstances,-if " joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth," think what must be the yearnings of a fond mother's heart over the contrition of her kneeling child.

Mrs. Gracelove immediately raised her up and pressed her to her bosom in silent gratitude; after which she knelt down with her daughter, and put up to heaven such a prayer— equally for the welfare of her own soul as for that of her dear child-as the pious reader may better conceive than the writer describe.

* Luke xv. 7.

CHAPTER IV.

THE reader being now sufficiently acquainted with the moral economy of Mr. and Mrs. Gracelove's household, will feel, it is hoped, more than anxious to know how the other great duties of life were performed; namely, those in relation to our neighbour, and which constitute the second great law of the two tables.

In this respect, also, was their practice in strict religious consistency with the duties already enumerated. They felt deeply conscious that He who had said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might:" that He who had said, in reference to his commandments," 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,"*-had also as strictly enjoined on his people-" Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." They recollected that "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." I

It was, therefore, as might be expected, the almost daily practice of these worthy persons to visit the cottages of the poor scattered around them; to listen to their tales of sorrow, relieve their wants, and in every possible way within their

* Deut. vi. 5, 7.

Matt. xix. 19.

Matt. xxii. 40.

power ameliorate their hapless condition. Nor was their spiritual welfare the last thing that was attended to. Often would the pious Mrs. Gracelove, zealous for her Master's cause, with the Bible in her hand, and the love of God in her heart, repair to these lowly tenements, and explain to their ignorant inmates those blessed Scriptures which are able to make wise unto salvation. On these occasions she would dwell with edifying zeal and persuasiveness on the great doctrine of the atonement. She would address them in the winning and affectionate language of the great apostle of the Gentiles, while imbued with the same tender spirit ;-" For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."*

Such a mode of exposition, accompanied by such a graciousness of manner, was calculated to gain the confidence of her humble auditors; and the listening ear with which they first attended to her instruction was at length followed by the willing and believing heart.

Nor could it be otherwise. When informed by their benevolent teacher that the mighty God himself," the Creator of the ends of the earth," had descended from the glories of heaven to invest himself with a much deeper poverty than even their own, in order to accomplish their salvation, these poor people could not but feel a double consolation under their afflictions. The more pious among them felt there was a grace thrown around their indigence, since it was the honoured garb of their Saviour's humiliation; while the still more solid comfort of believing that Christ's poverty was their riches, silenced every murmur, enabled them to support with cheerfulness their various degrees of distress, and raised their hopes to a better inheritance hereafter.

* 2 Cor. viii. 9.

On these errands of mercy and christian usefulness, Mrs. Gracelove was generally accompanied by her interesting daughter Laura, who was growing up under that anxious tuition which had watched over her from infancy, to be all that a mother's fond heart could wish. She was exemplifying daily, as before observed, the truth of the divine declaration, "Those that seek me early shall find me ;"* and was reaping from it the divine blessing connected with it-the love of God. She was remembering her Creator in the days of her youth; and, like Mary, had "chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." +

To give my gentle reader an instructive example of the edifying character of these cottage visitations, worthy of universal imitation, I select the following as a favourable specimen ex uno disce omnes. Mrs. Gracelove had visited, on various occasions, in the circuit of her missionary labours, the cottage of a peasant and his wife, who were, in some degree, in better circumstances than the poorer people around them, in consequence of the husband having more permanent employment, and somewhat higher wages. Her object, in this instance, therefore, was the improvement of their moral rather than that of their temporal condition. And great need there was for her spiritual charity in their behalf; for though a gracious Providence had blessed them with health and strength, and a sufficiency of work, and had given them a son, now six years of age, of an amiable and kindly temper, and very obedient to his parents, yet their return for these mercies to the compassionate Being who had bestowed them was-ingratitude.

In vain had their kind visitor admonished them on the due observance of the Sabbath day, the sanctity of which they so often violated; and on the duty of attending a place + Luke x. 42.

* Prov. viii. 17.

of worship, in a spirit of thanksgiving to God for what He had bestowed upon them. Once or twice, indeed, the influence of moral force, and, still more, of the respect felt for herself, had induced them to go to church; but their reluctance to do so was most painfully evident, and was immediately followed by a relapse into their infidel habits.

One morning, on presenting herself at their door, Mrs. Gracelove found them in great distress of mind, caused by the loss of their only child, whom death had unexpectedly carried off by scarlet fever. But the anguish they exhibited was so mingled with murmurs and repinings at the afflictive dispensation that had fallen upon them,-daring even to reproach the goodness of God in thus cutting off their only and cherished hope,-that our worthy friend felt called upon, beyond what she had ever felt before, to speak in a firmer tone of expostulation, and to "vindicate the ways of God to man."

After addressing to them some very apposite truths; recalling to their memory the rebellious and ungrateful conduct which they had manifested towards Him who had so blessed them beyond their neighbours, she stated it plainly as her opinion, that the loss they had sustained was the greatest mercy that could have happened to them, and was, indeed, graciously intended as such.

This remark drew from the obdurate couple an exclamation of astonishment, accompanied by the observation, that "they could not have believed that so gentle and kind a lady could have expressed a sentiment so wounding to their feelings."

"Believe me most sincere when I assure you," replied the latter," that I do not wish, for a single moment, to wound your feelings, or insult your misfortunes. I wish you, from my very heart, the truest and most enduring happiness.

« PreviousContinue »