{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_71906/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_71906","id":"gutenberg_71906","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71906","summary":null,"tags":["Adopted children -- Juvenile fiction","Category: British Literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Novels","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life -- Juvenile fiction","Lord's prayer -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.\n\n[Illustration: Nelly suddenly exclaimed, \"Who is that stranger-boy\ncoming this way with a bundle hanging by a stick over his shoulder?\"]\n\n\n\n                               THE\n\n                           ADOPTED SON\n\n                               OR,\n\n                ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE LORD'S PRAYER.\n\n\n\n                               BY\n\n                          A. L. O. E.\n\n          AUTHOR OF \"NED FRANKS,\" \"PICTURES OF ST PAUL,\"\n                   \"THE WHITE BEAR'S DEN,\" ETC.\n\n\n\n                         GALL & INGLIS.\n              London:                      Edinburgh:\n       25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE.         20 BERNARD TERRACE.\n\n\n\n                           CONTENTS.\n\nCHAP.\n\n   I. OUR FATHER, WHICH ART IN HEAVEN\n\n  II. HALLOWED BE THY NAME\n\n III. THY KINGDOM COME\n\n  IV. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN\n\n   V. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD\n\n  VI. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THEM\n      THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US\n\n VII. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION\n\nVIII. DELIVER US FROM EVIL\n\n  IX. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND\n      THE GLORY\n\n   X. FOR EVER AND EVER\n\n\n\n                      THE ADOPTED SON.\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n\"Our Father, which art in heaven.\"\n\n\"Oh! As I said before, it's all a matter of opinion. I think it a man's\nduty to attend to his business, and get his children well on in the\nworld,\" observed Goldie, the fruiterer, as the baker's wife handed to\nhim a bag of captain's biscuits from behind her counter. \"We must look\nto our advantage in this life, Mrs. Winter.\"\n\n\"Ay, and in the next also,\" replied the woman quietly. Then bending\nover the counter to a little flaxen-haired girl who had just entered\nthe shop, \"And what do you want, my dear?\" she said.\n\n\"Please for twopenny-worth of sweet biscuits, three for a penny,\"\nanswered the child.\n\nMrs. Winter slowly plunged her hand into one of the neat glass jars\nwhich, carefully labelled with their various contents, adorned the\nfront of her window.\n\nMrs. Winter was a pattern of neatness, even to precision, her cap was\never of faultless white, her panes were as clean as hands could make\nthem, not a crumb was ever suffered to rest on her counter, and her\nname over the door shone in bright gilt letters that might have been\nworthy of a shop in London. Precise and formal as some people deemed\nher, Mrs. Winter was a kind-hearted woman, too; much warm feeling lay\nunder a stiff, cold manner; combined with a large share of good common\nsense. She had never been blessed with children, and her husband,\nthough in some respects a worthy, honest man, kept his hands so tightly\nover his purse strings, as to gain for the couple a character of\npenuriousness, which was undeserved by his wife. Notwithstanding this,\nmany were the stale loaves which found their way to some poor man's\nhome, and many were the nights which Mrs. Winter had given to watching\nthe sick-bed of a neighbour.\n\nWhile the baker's wife was drawing forth the biscuits, Goldie entered\ninto conversation with the little girl.\n\n\"So you're going to have a treat for once in a way, Nelly Viner. You\ndon't trouble Mrs. Winter often for sweet biscuits, I should say.\"\n\n\"My new brother is coming home to-day,\" replied the child with a\nbeaming look of pleasure.\n\n\"Your new brother! Who's he?\"\n\n\"I do not exactly know, sir; but he is some one that we are to love,\nand be kind to. I shall be so glad to have a brother!\"\n\n\"I should have thought,\" said Goldie in a careless manner, \"that Viner\nhad enough to do to look after his own without adopting the children of\nother people. Do you know who this boy is, Mrs. Winter?\"\n\n\"I know that his name is Walter Binning; the son, I suppose, of some\nfriend.\"\n\n\"A friend! Never were you more mistaken in your life. Why, that's the\nname of the man who almost ruined Viner\u2014a heartless, unprincipled\u2014\"\n\nMrs. Winter glanced at the little girl, and put her finger on her lips.\nShe placed the biscuits before Nelly, but Nelly lingered. \"Are those\nnot what you wished?\" said the baker's wife, noticing the child's look\nof hesitation.\n\n\"Yes; but you have given me seven, and I have only paid for six,\"\nreplied the little one, looking artlessly up in her face.\n\n\"Now, if that isn't like her father!\" exclaimed Goldie, bursting into a\nloud laugh. \"I could have known her for his child all the world over!\nDon't you know, little simpleton, that seven are better than six?\"\n\n\"I thought that Mrs. Winter had made a mistake,\" replied the child, not\nliking the laugh, though she could not have told why.\n\n\"I think that it's you who made the mistake,\" said Goldie, laughing\nagain. \"Tell me, does not your father keep sugar plums as well as\ncabbages?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied Nelly, \"and very nice ones.\"\n\n\"Very nice; oh! I dare say that you know that pretty well. How many do\nyou eat, my little maid?\"\n\n\"Father gives me a brandy-ball every Sunday, or sometimes a piece of\npink rock,\" said Nelly, smiling.\n\n\"Oh! That's what he gives, but what do you take?\" asked the fruiterer,\nchucking her under the chin.\n\n\"I take what he gives. I don't know what you mean,\" said the little\ngirl, looking bewildered.\n\n\"Simpleton!\" muttered Goldie, glancing with a knowing smile at Mrs.\nWinter, but Mrs. Winter did not return the smile. \"You never help\nyourself?\" he continued to Nelly. \"Never manage to taste a sugar-plum\nwhen father's back is turned?\"\n\nThe child's face flushed crimson, she shrank back from his touch,\nlooked full into his face with her open blue eyes, and seemed to feel\nit unnecessary to say \"No!\"\n\n\"Nelly is brought up in the fear of God,\" observed Mrs. Winter, \"and\nknows that it would be better to touch live coals than anything\ndishonestly gained. Go home with your seven biscuits, my good little\ngirl, and make ready to welcome your new brother.\"\n\nAs soon as Nelly had left the shop, Goldie exclaimed, \"Well, I always\nthought that Viner was a little mad, but I never imagined that ever he\nwould do anything half so wild as this! Is he really going to adopt the\nson of Walter Binning?\"\n\n\"What do you know of the man?\" inquired Mrs. Winter.\n\n\"Know! Why I know that he has been the worst enemy that ever Viner had.\nHe was some distant relation of his, I fancy, and was for ever getting\nhim into one trouble or another. Viner was once, I have heard, in very\ngood business here\u2014that was before I set up my shop opposite\u2014and what\nfirst pulled him down, and half ruined the poor man, was becoming\nsecurity for this Binning. What might have been expected happened\u2014the\nrogue made off, and left his simple friend to pay, Ha! Ha! Ha! And now,\nlike an honest man, discharges his debt by making him a present of his\nson!\"\n\n\"I heard that the boy's father was absent beyond seas,\" said the\nbaker's wife.\n\n\"To be sure, that means 'sent out of his country for his country's\ngood.' I remember it now\u2014Walter Binning was transported for seven years\nfor theft! I wish Viner joy of the hopeful youth that he is going to\nadopt! He may not find him quite so apt a pupil as little Nelly. The\nchild of a thief is not likely to be a saint. If the father half ruined\npoor honest Viner, perhaps the son may finish the business!\" And so\nsaying, with a nod to the good woman of the shop, Goldie took up his\nbag and went out.\n\nThe village in which our scene is laid was one situated by the\nsea-side, which had not yet grown into a town, though already a\nfavourite resort of those who wished for sea breezes and quiet. It\nhad, like other watering-places, its boats and its bathing-machines;\nfishermen spread out their nets on the shingles; donkeys, ready\nsaddled, stood in a row prepared to carry visitors along the white\nchalky road, or the long line of smooth brown sand which was left wet\nand shining when the tide went down.\n\nE\u2014 boasted a small circulating library consisting of little but old\nsoiled novels, and a reading-room with benches in front, which were\noften occupied in summer by lady visitors, who, protected from the\nglare by parasols and broad-brimmed straw-hats, amused themselves with\ntheir knitting or their book, while enjoying the fresh air from the sea.\n\nE\u2014 at the time at which my story commences, was little more than\none narrow street, on each side of which small shops offered the\nnecessaries of life, and in spring, on the upper windows of most of\nthem the words, \"Lodgings to let,\" announced their preparation to\nreceive visitors. Of these small shops, one of the smallest and poorest\nin appearance was that on which was seen the name of Viner. It had a\nlittle wooden gate instead of door, and it seemed that its owner could\nnot entirely depend upon his profits from the rows of onions, bunches\nof carrots, or baskets of beans which covered his board, for little\nbottles of sweetmeats as well as of nuts were ranged along a shelf in\nhis shop, with a string of balls of twine hanging from the top, and a\nsmall supply of writing-paper in one corner, which was usually sold by\nthe sheet, not the quire.\n\nSo small and unpretending was the shop\u2014such a contrast to Goldie's\nlarge one opposite\u2014that visitors seldom thought of entering to buy,\nand it was chiefly frequented by the people of the village, who knew\nthe character of the man who kept it, and who never doubted, when they\npurchased a basket of fruit from Viner, that the lower ones were as\ngood as those at the top.\n\nIn this shop now stood Nelly with her father, awaiting the arrival\nof their expected guest. Viner was a man still in the prime of life,\nthough care and poverty had made him look older than he really was,\nand had streaked his hair with many a bright silver line. But the\nexpression of his face was serene, even happy, especially when he\nlooked upon his darling only child, the image of a wife whom he had\ntenderly loved, and for whom he had mourned\u2014but not as one without hope.\n\n\"And now remember one thing, my darling,\" he said, laying his hand\ngently upon her head, \"you must never speak to Walter about his father.\"\n\n\"But you love to speak about mother, and to take me to her grave, and\nto show me all the places that she marked in her Bible; if Walter's\nfather has died and gone to heaven, he will like to speak about him\ntoo.\"\n\n\"You must not ask my reasons, Nelly, but obey my wishes. Ah!\" thought\nthe bereaved husband, as he recalled his own heavy loss, \"How much\nsadder a thing is sin than death!\"\n\nNelly stood thoughtfully for a moment, as if pondering over the words\nof her parent, then looked up with a grave expression on her usually\nmerry little face as she said, \"Oh! I remember now what I heard at Mrs.\nWinter's.\"\n\n\"What did you hear, my child?\"\n\n\"Something about Walter's father\u2014something very bad; it was Mr. Goldie\nwho said it; you know when he spoke aloud, I could not help hearing;\nbut Mrs. Winter put her finger to her lips.\"\n\n\"I am very sorry that Mr. Goldie should say anything, or know anything\nabout the matter. You, at any rate, must take no notice of it. It is no\nfault of poor Walter's that he has been unhappy in his parent.\"\n\n\"Father,\" said Nelly, her own joyous expression returning, as she laid\nher little hand upon Viner's arm, and looked up full into his face,\n\"will not you be a father to Walter? He shall be your son, and my\nbrother too, and we shall all be so happy together!\"\n\nViner only replied by a smile, and the child continued\u2014\"Mr. Goldie said\na word which I thought meant that, something about your ad\u2014I cannot\njust remember the word.\"\n\n\"Adopting, I suppose.\"\n\n\"Yes, that was it exactly! I think,\" added Nelly, with a graver air,\n\"that there is some word like that in the Bible.\"\n\n\"There is, my Nelly, and a blessed word it is! All Christians are the\nadopted children of God; it is from His gracious adoption alone that we\ndare to address Him as 'Our Father, which art in heaven.'\"\n\n\"To adopt is to take some other person's child, and call it your own,\nand love it as your own, end feed it, and care for it, as you will for\nWalter. Am I not right?\" said Nelly.\n\n\"Quite right,\" replied Viner, stroking her fair hair.\n\n\"And if God adopts us, He will love us, and watch over us, and take\ncare of us as long as we live, and take us home to Himself when we die!\nBut were we ever any one's children but God's?\"\n\n\"We were by nature, my Nelly, the children of wrath. Adam, our first\nfather, had offended the Lord, and we are born into the world with a\nnature like his, bearing his sinful likeness, even as Walter Binning\nbears the name of his father. Man was not only a stranger to, but a\nrebel against God\u2014he had no right to expect anything but punishment and\npain from the hand of his offended Maker.\"\n\n\"And yet the Lord adopted him, and made him His son!\"\n\n\"Yes, that mercy beyond all we could ask for or hope, was one of the\nblessings purchased for us by the death of the Saviour. It was as\nthough the Lord Jesus had laid His pierced hand upon the sinner, and\nhad led him to the feet of His Father, and that the Almighty, for the\nsake of his crucified Son, had deigned to receive the unworthy sinner,\nand make him His own child for ever!\"\n\n\"Then if we are God's children,\" exclaimed Nelly, \"we must all be\nbrothers and sisters to one another.\"\n\n\"It is so,\" replied Viner earnestly, \"though is our selfishness and\npride we too often forget it. Those who love their Father in heaven\nwill love His children on earth also, and form one blessed family of\nlove.\"\n\n\"I never thought before,\" said Nelly, thoughtfully, \"when I repeated\nthe Lord's Prayer, why I should say 'Our Father,' instead of 'My\nFather;' but now I will try to remember every time, that I am one of a\ngreat family of love!\"\n\nFew more words passed between Viner and his daughter, until Nelly\nsuddenly exclaimed, \"Who is that stranger-boy coming this way with a\nbundle hanging by a stick over his shoulder, who looks up at the name\nover every shop, and seems so tired and sad? Father, do you think that\nthis can be Walter?\"\n\nIt was Walter indeed, the convict's son, who now received from Viner\nsuch a kindly welcome as the true Christian gives to the unfortunate.\n\nWalter appeared, from his height, to be a boy of about ten years of\nage, but the expression of his sharpened careworn features made him\nlook much older; it was not the expression of a child. There was at\nfirst a restlessness in his manner, as of one ready to take either\noffence or alarm, which gave Nelly a curious impression that he was\nlike some wild creature that had been hunted. He usually fixed his\neyes on the ground, and when he raised them, it was not with the\nstraightforward look of a boy who has nothing to conceal or to fear.\nPoor outcast! The remembrance of his father's shame hung like a heavy\ncloud over him; the first fresh flow of youthful feelings had been\nchecked at the spring, he was inclined to suspect others, and to feel\nhimself suspected.\n\nHe could not, however, resist the influence of the unaffected\nkindliness which he met with from Viner and his little daughter.\nThe best food at the simple meal was placed on his plate, there was\nconsideration for his feelings, and attention to his comfort in\neverything that was said or done. His chilled heart began to warm under\nthe power of kindness, gradually his manner appeared less shy, he\nbecame less silent and sad, and before the evening was over, was ready\nto smile, and even laugh at the playful words of Nelly.\n\nThe hour arrived for evening prayer. Everything else was laid aside,\nand the large Bible, the treasure of many generations, on whose blank\npage many family names were written\u2014some so pale with age that they\ncould scarcely be read\u2014was reverently placed upon the table. To evening\nmeeting for prayer Walter had, till now, been entirely a stranger.\nHe was not altogether ignorant on the subject of religion; in the\nstrange unsettled life which he had led in London with his father, he\nhad met with a variety of characters, and gathered up knowledge upon\nmany different subjects, but there was nothing clear, nothing defined,\nnothing holy. Yet it was with no irreverent manner that Walter listened\nto the Word of God, or the prayer from the lips of his benefactor. The\nconduct of Viner insensibly connected in his mind kindness and goodness\nwith piety; and gratitude towards man seemed likely to be the first\nstep to raise him towards gratitude to a higher Being.\n\nWhen Nelly had received her father's evening kiss and blessing, and\nhad bidden a kind good-night to her new brother, Viner led his guest\nfrom his parlour into his small shop, and kindly laying his hand\non his shoulder, explained to him what his duties would be. Viner\nhad not forgotten that boys are liable to temptation, that a youth\nbrought up as Walter had been, would above all, be likely to yield to\ntemptation\u2014he would neither ask nor expect much.\n\n\"I know,\" said he, smiling, as he pointed to the sweetmeats, \"that\nthings such as these are liked by most young people, so you have my\nfree permission to take some\u2014Walter, I have no objection to that. You\nwill remember, at the same time, that you are living with a poor man,\nwith one who cannot afford to give his family all the enjoyments that\nmight be wished, so that I am sure that you will not take too much.\"\n\nA little colour came to Walter's pale cheek\u2014it was so new a thing to be\ntrusted. But a generous feeling was awakened in his breast, and as he\npressed the hand held out to him, he silently resolved that Viner never\nshould have cause to repent having confided in his honour.\n\n\"And now, my dear boy, I have but one thing more to add before we part\nfor the night. You will help me in my business, and make yourself\nuseful. No good boy would wish to eat the bread of idleness; but I\nreceive you into my house as one of my family, and as long as you do\nnothing to forfeit the name, I shall regard you and treat you as my\nson.\"\n\nOh! How many a wanderer would be reclaimed, how many a prodigal led\nback to his home, if those who call themselves Christians, instead of\nshrinking from the outcast, and stamping him at once with the character\nof guilt, would seek to draw out the nobler feelings of a heart not yet\nseared and hardened! God be praised! There are yet some who, like their\nSaviour, go forth to seek and save that which was lost, and the child\nof the thief, and the young thief himself, are taught the path which\nleads to holiness and to Thee:\n\n                 \"OUR FATHER, WHICH ART IN HEAVEN!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n\"Hallowed be Thy name.\"\n\nTHERE was a good deal of curiosity in the village to see the convict's\nboy whom Viner had adopted, and to know the result of his dangerous\nexperiment\u2014his romantic benevolence, as it was called. Nowhere was this\ncuriosity stronger than in the home of Goldie, whose large handsome\nshop, as I before mentioned, stood opposite to the humble dwelling of\nViner.\n\nAs Goldie and his family will often appear in the course of my tale, I\nmay as well give here at once an introduction to them all.\n\nA finer family than that of Goldie, the fruiterer, was not to be found\nin the village of E\u2014. His three sons, when young children, constantly\nattracted the notice of visitors by their uncommon beauty\u2014a painter\nof eminence had introduced their likeness into one of his pictures as\ncherubs, and the praises lavished upon them by strangers fostered the\npride of their fond mother, who believed that her boys, especially Ned\nthe youngest, were not to be equalled by any children in England.\n\nAs they grew older, Aleck, the first-born, displayed so much talent,\nthat Goldie, persuaded that he wanted nothing but a good education\nto place him in the highway to fortune and fame, made every effort,\nscraped together all his gains, denied himself and family many\ncomforts, to send him to a school where he might be with gentlemen's\nsons, and acquire the knowledge necessary for getting on in the world.\nGetting on in the world was a favourite expression of Goldie's, and to\njudge both by his conduct and his advice to his children, it appeared\nthat to him it comprised the chief\u2014I had almost said the only object\nin life. Yet Goldie did not consider himself exactly an irreligious\nman. He had no objection to piety as long as it did not interfere with\nprofit; spoke very decidedly about upholding the Church, sometimes\nattended divine service himself when some one else would look after the\nshop, which he kept open on Sunday as usual, and kept a large handsome\nBible in his parlour, which he never read or even opened.\n\nHis wife's character was of a different stamp. Mrs. Goldie was not\nhardened in worldliness\u2014with another husband she might have appeared\na religious woman. When God's day was profaned, and His commandments\ndisobeyed, she had a secret suspicion that all was not right. She\nregularly went to church, and what she heard there often sent her home\nwith an uneasy conscience. She was a delicate woman, too, and in hours\nof sickness was often visited by scruples and fears. But her husband\nlaughed at them, and she struggled against them, was contented to try\nto think them foolish and weak; and while, like Agrippa, almost a\nChristian in conviction, was never ready to step over the border-line\nand take up the cross in earnest. She had just religion enough to make\nher uneasy, and that, if constantly resisted or neglected, is not the\nreligion which can bring us to heaven.\n\nMrs. Goldie loved her sons, she idolised Ned, her whole heart seemed\nwrapped up in the boy. No wish so unreasonable but it must be granted,\nno fault so glaring but it must be overlooked; she found an excuse for\nevery error. It is true that Mrs. Goldie would rather that her sons had\nchosen other companions than such as those whose society she feared did\nthem no good; she had rather that they had sometimes read the Bibles\nwith which she had provided them, instead of the cheap novels that\nwere constantly lying about their rooms; she had rather that Mat and\nNed had not sat up gambling till midnight; but she never made a hearty\neffort to change anything that was amiss. \"It was natural that boys\nshould like amusement,\" she said\u2014and with her, it is natural almost\nstood instead of it is right. Her sons knew nothing of a mother's\ngentle training, earnest entreaties, affectionate reproofs. She had not\nwatched over them, prayed for them, sought to win them to God, and any\naffection that they might bear their mother was unmixed either with\nobedience or respect.\n\nTo such a family as this, it is no wonder that the adoption by Viner\nof the son of a convict, the son of a man who had greatly wronged him,\nappeared an act of extraordinary folly. While Walter and his little\ncompanion Nelly were engaged in laying out vegetables, preparing the\nshop, and disposing of beans and potatoes to fishermen's wives, or\nsweetmeats to bareheaded children who had but one copper piece to lay\nupon the counter, their neighbours on the opposite side of the street\nwere passing many a joke at his expense.\n\n\"That boy there don't know how to shell peas!\" said Mat.\n\n\"Depend on't, he knows precious well how to eat them,\" laughed Ned.\n\n\"I'd not be a peach or a plum in his way,\" said the first speaker, \"if\npoor Viner adorned his board with such dainties, but the temptation of\nraw carrots might be withstood\u2014ha! ha! ha!\"\n\n\"You forget the pink rock and the lolly-pop!\" exclaimed Ned.\n\n\"Yes, the good man will find his stock going remarkably cheap\u2014at an\nalarming sacrifice, as they advertise in the London shops.\"\n\n\"I must just step over and have a fling at the chap before the old\nMethodist comes back to the rescue; I see him turning the corner with a\nbasket of greens, and somehow or other, I can never crack a good joke\nbefore him.\" Strange as it may appear, notwithstanding his poverty,\nnotwithstanding the ridicule lavished upon him during his absence,\nthere was something about Viner which commanded respect, and even these\nwilful, unruly lads would have felt ashamed of being impertinent to him.\n\nThe shyness of Walter had entirely worn off towards Nelly; her kindness\npleased, her prattle amused him, he felt her society like a fresh\nbreeze of spring, it was a delight to him to look on her as a little\nsister. It was only necessity, however, which had made Viner leave\nthem so long alone together, for he intended carefully to watch the\ncharacter of his adopted son, and let him have little intercourse with\nhis child, except in his own presence, until he knew that she could\nlearn no evil from her companion. As soon, therefore, as his necessary\nbusiness was finished, he hastened back to his home.\n\nFull of mischievous fun, Ned, followed by Mat, ran across the road to\nViner's little shop.\n\n\"I say,\" cried he, \"have you any string?\" Walter glanced at Nelly, then\nfollowing the direction of her eye, jumped upon the counter to reach\nthe balls of twine which were amongst the articles sold in the shop.\n\n\"What's the price?\" said Ned, with a laughing expression in his eye.\n\nPrompted by the child, Walter answered, \"A penny a ball.\"\n\n\"That's too much\u2014hemp's cheap; I thought that you would know the way of\ngetting that without paying for it at all! I say, Nelly,\" continued the\nmerry boy, without appearing to notice the cloud gathering on Walter's\nbrow, \"how long is it since your father has kept forbidden fruit here?\"\n\n\"Forbidden fruit,\" replied the child, giving an inquiring glance around\nher. \"I did not know that father kept forbidden fruit. What is it?\"\n\n\"Such as drops from the gallows tree,\" cried Ned; and with a loud\ninsulting laugh, the two boys ran off just as Viner entered the place.\n\n\"He meant to insult me,\" exclaimed Walter, with a loud oath.\n\nNelly was shocked and astonished, and looked at her father.\n\n\"Walter,\" said Viner calmly but firmly, \"I never permit an oath under\nmy roof; we have this day uttered the prayer, 'Hallowed be Thy name,'\nand heavy is our guilt if we profane that name.\"\n\n\"I only spoke thoughtlessly,\" said Walter, looking rather sullen; \"one\ncannot be always considering one's words.\"\n\n\"And yet the Lord Himself hath declared that by our words we should be\njustified, and by our words condemned; and that for every idle word\nthat men should speak, 'they should give account in the awful day of\njudgment!'\"\n\n\"But some men never open their lips without an oath; not only the poor\nand ignorant, but the rich and great. It seems to give such force to\nwhat a man says, and it grows such a strong habit that one scarcely can\nbreak it. Nelly would not have looked so much shocked as she did just\nnow if she had seen a little more of the world, as I have.\"\n\n\"We shall not be judged by what the world does, or by what the world\nthinks,\" said Viner, \"but by the Word of Him who hath said, 'Swear\nnot at all.' It has always appeared to me,\" continued Viner, \"that\nswearing is one of the most unaccountable of sins. We can well\nimagine how the poor man is tempted to steal, the timid to lie, or\nthe self-indulgent to exceed; but for swearing there appears not the\nshadow of a cause\u2014heaven is risked, and nothing is gained, the Almighty\nis offended, a crime is committed of which no result remains but its\nterrible record on the Book which shall be opened and read one day\nbefore the angels and archangels of heaven!\"\n\nWalter's sullen look had passed away, his better feelings struggled\nwith his pride. \"I will try never to utter an oath again\u2014at least\nbefore you, whom I respect,\" said he.\n\n\"Whom you respect! A poor sinful creature of dust; and yet you would\nutter it before the eternal God, who created the lips, who gave the\nbreath which you employ in mocking His command!\"\n\n\"I will never take God's name in vain,\" said Walter.\n\n\"God bless you, my dear boy, for that good resolution, and give you His\nHoly Spirit, that you may be enabled to keep it.\"\n\n\"I do not think that I shall find it very difficult,\" said Walter,\nwho was not accustomed to doubt the power of his own will\u2014who, having\nstruggled but little with his sins, had yet to learn his own weakness.\n\n\"More difficult, maybe, than you think,\" replied Viner. \"Perhaps you\nare not aware how many times this day you may have taken that holy name\nin vain.\"\n\n\"Never but once!\" said Walter quickly.\n\n\"Oh!\" exclaimed little Nelly involuntarily.\n\n\"When?\" said Walter, turning towards her; but Nelly did not look\ninclined to reply. \"When?\" repeated Walter impatiently, \"When did I\ntake God's name in vain?\"\n\nThe little girl hesitated, afraid of offending, yet accustomed to speak\nout the truth; then timidly said, looking down on the floor, \"You know,\nWalter, that when you talk with me, you often begin with 'Lord! or\nGod bless my soul!' or you say 'The Lord knows,' when really I do not\nthink, I am afraid, that you are not considering at all what you are\nsaying.\"\n\nViner was not yet aware of this habit in Walter, for the boy had been\nshy and reserved in his presence, and had not spoken out so freely\nbefore him as when alone with his gentle little daughter.\n\nWalter coloured, and tried to laugh. \"You are very precise,\" said he.\n\n\"I hope that I have not made you vexed with me,\" whispered Nelly,\ndrawing nearer to him, and laying her small hand on his. \"I hope that I\nhave not said anything unkind.\"\n\n\"No, no,\" replied Walter hastily. \"I dare say that you are all right;\nbut these things are so new to me\u2014I never thought at all of them\nbefore. You can hardly imagine how different I am from you\u2014you have\nnever taken God's name in vain in all your life.\"\n\n\"Oh! but I have\u2014often,\" murmured Nelly, again looking down.\n\n\"When? I am certain that you never swear.\"\n\n\"When I pray,\" answered Nelly, speaking very low, so that Walter could\nscarcely catch the words.\n\n\"Surely, if you are ever out of harm's way, it's when you are praying,\"\nexclaimed Walter.\n\n\"Not if I am thinking of something else all the time. Father has told\nme that we may say prayers and yet never pray, and that this is taking\nthe Lord's name in vain.\"\n\nWalter sighed; for the first time he felt how difficult it must be to\nattain to that \"holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.\"\nAfter the wild life that he had led, the wicked scenes that he had\nwitnessed, Viner's dwelling seemed to him the home of purity itself;\nand Nelly, a little cherub all spotless and holy, who never had known\nanything of sin.\n\nIt was with a feeling to which he had been a stranger before, a sense\nof weakness, a consciousness of guilt, that he knelt that evening by\nthe little child's side, and repeated after her father the words of the\nLord's Prayer:\n\n                      \"HALLOWED BE THY NAME.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n\"Thy kingdom come.\"\n\nTHE next day was Saturday, on the evening of which Viner, as usual,\ncast up his accounts, and reckoned his gains during the week. It was\nthe amusement of Nelly, seated upon his knee, to arrange pence and\nhalf pence into little shilling heaps, and separate the sum always\nlaid aside for the rent, and that required to purchase the next week's\nstock. The little child felt herself useful in doing this, and aspired\nto the time when she could manage the big book, and sum up all the\nfigures like father. But this evening there was a cloud over her sunny\nface, and she looked sadly at the small amount of money that remained,\nwhen she had put aside what was wanted for rent and stock.\n\n\"We used once to have roast beef for Sunday dinner,\" she said, with a\nsigh, \"and lately we have always had bacon and beans, but to-morrow we\nshall have nothing but porridge and potatoes.\"\n\n\"And eat them with thankfulness, I trust, my darling. There are many\nwho have worse fare than that.\"\n\nWalter was pained to the heart, although he said nothing; he felt\nhimself a burden on one already poor, the little help that he could\ngive was scarcely needed in the shop, food and lodging seemed to him\nnot earned but received from charity.\n\nViner observed the gloomy expression on the face of his adopted son;\nand though his own heart was struggling beneath a weight of care, as he\nput by his insufficient gains, and thought of the approaching winter,\nwhen those gains might be expected to be less, he endeavoured to cheer\nhis young companions by diverting their minds from the subject.\n\n\"Walter,\" said he, \"I have observed your eye often rest on that curious\nlittle book which is kept on our mantelpiece.\"\n\n\"Yes; it looks so strange and ancient, in its old-fashioned covering,\nof what was once, I suppose, gold and blue; it is not like the small\nbooks we see now.\"\n\n\"Has Nelly yet told you the story of that book?\"\n\nIn a moment the face of the little girl had all its sunniness again.\n\"Oh no!\" she exclaimed, \"I left that for you\u2014the story of my dear good\ngrandfather! That is my favourite story about the illumination and the\nbarefooted little boy. O father! So tell it to us now! This is just the\ntime, when the shop is shut, and our work is over, and it is getting\ndark; we shall save a candle, you know, for we don't need light to\nlisten!\"\n\nThis favourite story was one which Nelly had heard more than once, and\nhad thought over very often, till there was nothing in the possession\nof her father, his Bible and her mother's wedding-ring excepted, for\nwhich she felt half the reverence as for that little old book. Now,\nseated upon her father's knee, with her arm round his neck, and her\nhead on his shoulder, and Walter listening opposite, Nelly quite forgot\nall care for the morrow, all fear of approaching want.\n\n\"I will tell you the story,\" said Viner, \"partly as I heard it from my\ngood father, who used to mention some of the circumstances of it as\namongst the greatest mercies which he had ever experienced, but chiefly\nas it was often related to me by my grandmother, who was as fond, dear\nold lady, of telling the story about her son as Nelly is now of hearing\nit.\"\n\n\"Well, it must now be some seventy years since the day when my\ngrandmother, a poor gardener's widow, who then lived in a cottage\nnot far from this very place\u2014(it has been pulled down long ago, but\nNelly can show you where it stood)\u2014bade farewell to her only son. The\ncharacter of my grandmother was so respectable that, poor as she was,\nmany looked up to her for counsel and example; she had been nurse in\nthe family of a gentleman, and had more knowledge, and knowledge of the\nbest kind, than usually falls to the lot of the poor.\"\n\n\"It was a great matter for her that a good situation had been procured\nfor her only son in London, but still it was a sore trial to the widow\nto part with him; and when she thought of the temptations before him,\nher heart trembled and would have sunk within her, but for prayer, her\nunfailing resource.\"\n\n\"The morning before he left her, my grandmother sat packing the box of\nher son, for she would do everything for him herself. She had darned\nhis stockings and mended his clothes so neatly, that they looked almost\nas good as new. I believe that many a tear had dropped over her work,\nbut she tried to look cheerful to my father. Carefully, she placed his\nBible in the box, and beside it three very small books in gold and\nblue, one of which you now see before you.\"\n\n\"'A single copy is enough for me,' said my father; 'they are, I see,\nexactly alike, what should I do with three?'\"\n\n\"In those days, Walter, small religious publications were not so easily\nto be procured as they are at present. Now there is an abundance of\nworks of all sizes and prices in which the pure Gospel is explained and\ntaught, and even poor Christians may help, by the means of such, to\nspread the knowledge of God; but there was not the same number of them\nthen. Where my grandmother had bought these books I do not know, they\nwere considered old even in her day; they contained a good deal from\nScripture, especially the Sermon on the Mount explained by a very holy\nDivine. I have heard that my grandmother had twelve copies at first,\nbut now only these three remained, for, as she explained to my father,\nthey were intended to be lent or given to others.\"\n\n\"'Always remember, my dear son,' she said, laying her thin hand upon\nhis, 'that God's kingdom of glory may come any day, but God's kingdom\nof grace is coming every day; and as it is our bounden duty to pray for\nthe first, so is it to work for the spread of the other. We must be\nlike the Jews while building their second temple, the sword in one hand\nto fight against our sins, the working-tool in the other\u2014and books like\nthese are such\u2014to help to raise a holy building to God. They that be\nwise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn\nmany to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.'\"\n\n\"These words of the widow sank deep into the heart of my father, they\nmade him see his position as a Christian in a new light. It was not\nenough, he found, to keep unspotted from the world, he should also,\nas God might give him opportunity, visit the fatherless and widows in\ntheir affliction\u2014not only himself faithfully serve his heavenly King,\nbut seek to bring others to that blessed Saviour.\"\n\n\"But my father found all his good resolutions sorely tried when he\nentered the situation which had been procured for him. His master was\na haberdasher in London, one whom the world termed respectable, but\nhis standard of right and wrong was very different from that which\nthe youth had learned from his Bible and his mother. Sharpness and\nshrewdness were prized above honest dealing. 'All fair in the way of\nbusiness' was the shopkeeper's favourite motto, and he was not disposed\nto question too closely the lawfulness of whatever increased his gains.\nHis other shop-boy, whose name was Tim Sands, was also one from whom my\nfather could learn little that was good. Not an ill-disposed lad; had\nhe been in proper hands and under the care of a conscientious master,\nhe might have gone on steadily enough. But Sands was weak-minded and\neasily led, and though too busy during the week to have much time\nfor mischief, on Sunday, he mixed in all kinds of dissipation, with\ncompanions far worse than himself. In society such as this, my poor\nfather felt little comfort or benefit, truly, he stood alone; and\nbut for the power of privately pouring out his heart before God, and\nthinking of the coming of that happy time when the kingdom of the earth\nshall become the kingdoms of the Lord, his courage would have failed\nhim entirely, and he might have become like those amongst whom he\nlived.\"\n\n\"He had a constant fight against sin, I dare say,\" observed Walter,\n\"but as for the work of which his mother had spoken, I think that he\nmust have left that alone altogether: how could he look after the souls\nof other people; he had enough to do to take care of his own.\"\n\n\"Oh! You will hear\u2014you will hear,\" whispered Nelly.\n\n\"In the first place,\" said Viner, \"he prayed for others, especially for\nhis master and companion; he asked that God's kingdom might come in\ntheir hearts. Such prayers are never in vain, for even if the petition\nbe not granted, the Lord returns it in blessings into the bosom of\nhim who offers it in charity and faith. But my father did not content\nhimself with this. He found out in a street, not very far from his\nshop, a woman who had once been known to his mother. She had married\nand fallen into great poverty, and was now living in wretchedness in\na small garret, with three children who were dependent upon her. My\nfather had no money to bestow, but he did what he could: he found the\nfamily in a state of ignorance, and dirt, almost degraded to the level\nof the beasts that perish; he roused the mother to exertion by his\nwords; he offered a weekly visit to read the Bible to her, for she was\nunable herself to read; he undertook on Sundays to teach her young\nchildren, looking upon the poor ignorant little ones as lambs whom the\nLord had appointed him to feed.\"\n\n\"At first he met with little gratitude, and even some opposition, and\nthe task of teaching, which was new to him, seemed intolerably irksome;\nmuch would he have preferred a walk on the bright Sabbath evenings to\npassing them in that close garret with noisy children. But difficulties\ngradually were smoothed away before him; even the woman herself became\nhis pupil, children of other lodgers joined his little flock, and\ngladly shared his instructions; and as my father looked round upon this\ninfant ragged school, he felt how great was the honour, how deep the\njoy of being permitted thus to labour for the spread of God's kingdom\nof grace.\"\n\n\"But while he quietly pursued this Christian work, my father had\nalso to endure the Christian fight, and to try the strength of his\nprinciples upon an occasion that sorely tested his faith. One day, when\nhe was serving behind the counter, his master overheard him, in reply\nto a question from a customer, frankly own that he did not believe that\nthe colours of a print which he was showing would bear washing. The\npresence of the lady prevented anything at the moment but an angry look\nfrom the master, but when she had quitted the shop without purchasing\nanything, the torrent of his anger burst forth. My father had to\nsubmit to hear himself called a blockhead and a fool, and submitted in\nsilence; for he thought of his widowed mother, the difficulty which she\nhad in procuring for him this place, and the distress which she would\nfeel if she lost it. But when his master, having exhausted his rage,\nbegan to give him a lesson in the ways of the world which went directly\nagainst conscience and religion, when he was ordered to be ready to\nutter a falsehood whenever that falsehood might serve his employer, my\nfather felt that the time had come for him to make a stand, and risk\nanything rather than his soul.\"\n\n\"'I can only speak what is true,' he said modestly but firmly; how\ndifficult he found it to utter that short sentence, but how thankful\nwas he when he had done so!\"\n\n\"'You must obey what I order, or march out of my shop!' exclaimed the\nmaster, his face reddening with passion.\"\n\n\"It was a great relief to my father that customers entering at the\nmoment broke short the conversation; and he was truly glad that he was\nable, before they left, without having swerved in the least from truth,\nto make a considerable addition to the money in the till. It seemed as\nthough Providence were helping him through the difficulties which he\nhad boldly faced in obedience to duty.\"\n\n\"And did he always keep firm?\" asked Walter.\n\n\"Always; he never even gave an equivocal answer.\"\n\n\"Then I suppose that his master turned him off.\"\n\n\"He threatened to do so more than once, but was too much a man of the\nworld not to know when he had a good servant; and my father was so\nactive and intelligent, so regular in his accounts, so ready on all\noccasions to oblige, that even his master could not but be aware of his\nvalue. As with Joseph, everything seemed to prosper in his hand, and\nhaving nothing to find fault with except his religion, even the ungodly\nman learned to respect his assistant.\"\n\n\"There is an influence, sometimes unknown to ourselves, which we exert\neither for good or evil amongst those with whom we live. Had my father\nbeen austere, proud, or self-righteous, he might, in attempts to\nconvert Tim Sands, have driven him farther from the path of salvation.\nBut my father's kindness and cheerfulness gradually won for him the\nregard of his fellow-shopman. Sands began by laughing at, but ended\nby looking up to him. It was not easy, indeed, to draw the youth's\nattention to anything serious; in vain one of the little counsellors\nin gold and blue had been purposely placed in his way\u2014he had never got\nbeyond the title page of it, and it was soon thrown aside for a dirty\nnovel.\"\n\n\"One Sunday evening, after a wet, cold day, Sands, who, much against\nhis will, had been kept from his usual diversions by the weather, saw\nmy father preparing to leave the house.\"\n\n\"'I say, Viner,' cried he, 'are you going out for a walk? I see that\nthe sky is clearing up at last. I think that I'll take a turn with\nyou\u2014that is, if you are not going to church again, you'll not draw me\nin for that!'\"\n\n\"'I am not going to church, but to pass the evening with some friends.'\"\n\n\"'Old Methodists, I suppose, grave and solemn.'\"\n\n\"'No, young and lively,' answered my father.\"\n\n\"'Well, I say, there's no knowing what you good people are after! So\nyou spend your Sunday evenings amid jovial companions! I've half a mind\nto go with you and see your friends. Had it not rained cats and dogs, I\nshould have been at Greenwich with mine.'\"\n\n\"'Come, and welcome,' said my father, with a smile.\"\n\n\"So they walked on till they entered a very narrow street, low and\ndirty, where most of the wretched shops were open, and such of the\ninhabitants as were loitering about looked as though they had been\noccupants of the workhouse. My father entered a little shop, and merely\nwishing good evening to the man who was in it, proceeded at once to the\nback of it, and, followed by Sands, ascended the steep, dark, dirty\nstair, where noisy sounds and disagreeable smells annoyed both senses\nat once.\"\n\n\"'Your company may be choice, but I can't say much for their place of\nmeeting,' observed Sands.\"\n\n\"My father unclosed the door of an attic-room, and was received with a\nburst of welcome from a dozen young voices within. The room was small,\nclose, and dimly lighted by a single candle; but it was impossible to\nlook without interest on the pale, hungry-looking, but intelligent\nlittle beings with whom it was crowded; all poor, some barefoot, yet in\ntheir poverty as much the children of God and heirs of eternal life as\nthe nobles and princes of the land. My father asked after the mother\nof this one, and the sick sister of that, winning the hearts of his\nscholars by his look of kindly interest; and, after a few minutes spent\nin this manner, 'Now, let us begin with a hymn,' said he.\"\n\n\"'Jerusalem, my happy home!' How strangely sweet it must have sounded\nto hear the voices of those ragged children sing of the 'pearly gates'\nand 'streets of shining gold' of the heavenly dwelling-place above,\nwithin the walls of that miserable attic! Sands remained an attentive,\nperhaps an interested, listener for the two hours during which his\ncompanion's labours lasted. When they found themselves again in the\nstreet, he remarked:\n\n\"'Well, certainly there is some difference between your kind of society\nand the jolly parties to which I am accustomed at the White Hart, or\nSaracen's Head.'\"\n\n\"'But are all the pleasures which you may have enjoyed there worth the\nhope of meeting one of those little ones in heaven, when the kingdom of\nGod shall have come?'\"\n\n\"Sands made no reply, and walked back in silence.\"\n\n\"A day of trouble was coming for my father, in which he would need all\nthe comfort which religion and a good conscience could give. He was\nsent one evening to a customer with a parcel of valuable goods, for\nwhich he was to receive payment. Thinking of lending one of his little\nfriends in gold and blue to a widow who kept a stall near the square\nto which he was going, he opened his pocket-book which he carried with\nhim, and placed one of the copies in it. The woman had, however, left\nher stand, so this opportunity of doing good was lost for the time.\nThe customer received the goods, and paid for them, and two five-pound\nnotes were carefully placed by my father in the pocket-book beside the\nlittle publication.\"\n\n\"The streets were much crowded on his return, for there were\npreparations for a grand illumination. My father did not loiter on his\nway, but his attention was naturally attracted by the splendid stars\nand wreaths, which were beginning to be lighted up as he passed. As\nhe entered his master's shop, he put his hand into his pocket, and\nhis surprise and distress may be readily imagined, when he found it\nentirely empty. His first impulse was to retrace his steps, which\nhe did, though with scarcely the faintest hope of success; glancing\nvainly down on every side, asking bystanders the question which\nalways received the same discouraging answer. All the glories of the\nillumination were lost upon him; he could think of nothing but his lost\nbank-notes.\"\n\n\"Weary and sad, he returned to his home, where he had to wait for an\nhour\u2014a most painful hour it was\u2014till his master returned from seeing\nthe illumination. The confession of his loss was frankly made, with\nevery expression of heartfelt regret; but the anger of the haberdasher\nwas beyond all bounds, and he treated my unhappy father as though the\nmoney had not been lost but stolen by him. Whether the master had\nindulged too freely in drink that night, I know not, but I think it\nmore than probable; he abused my father in violent terms, dismissed him\nfrom his service, refused to give him even a character, and, for his\nown convenience alone, allowed him to remain beneath his roof until he\ncould procure some one to supply his place.\"\n\n\"My father retired to his little room with an almost breaking heart.\nI have often heard him say that this was the bitterest moment of his\nlife. To lose his place was misfortune enough; but his character\u2014that\nwhich was dearer than life! He could scarcely restrain his burning\ntears! But he laid his troubles before his God; he remembered that\nthe Almighty afflicts not in vain, that the Lord would yet make his\ninnocence clear before all, if not in this world, yet in the kingdom\nwhich is to come.\"\n\n\"As he was rising from his knees, Sands entered the room, having heard\nof the misfortune of his companion. Sands was a kind-hearted fellow,\nand really liked my father, and tried in his rough way to comfort him.\n\n\"'I am heartily sorry that you are going,' he said, in conclusion; 'I\nassure you, Viner, that I would do anything for you.'\"\n\n\"'Then you will not refuse this little remembrance from a friend,' said\nmy father, placing in his hand one of the books in gold and blue, from\nwhich he had just himself been drawing counsel and comfort. 'For my\nsake, you will read this little work through, and God bless you, Sands,\nand reward you for the kindness which you have shown to a friend in\ndisgrace!'\"\n\n\"And did Sands read it?\" inquired Walter.\n\n\"I believe that he did. I remember seeing him as a gray-headed old\nman, and he then showed me his little copy in gold and blue, looking\nvery much the worse for wear; and he told me that he thought that if\nthere were any good in him, he owed it to the example and advice of my\nfather.\"\n\n\"And was your father obliged to leave his situation?\"\n\n\"Some delay occurred in supplying his place; he was, therefore, allowed\nto remain about ten days longer. He felt very sad and low on the Sunday\nevening on which he was to pay his last visit to his little school, for\nas he had as yet been unable to get another situation in London, he\nintended to return to his mother.\"\n\n\"He found his young pupils ready for him as usual; but a cloud of\nsorrow was over them, for they know that they were to welcome their\nkind teacher no more. My father tried to improve to them even the\noccasion of their mutual distress; he spoke to them of the place where\nthere is no more parting, of the unending joys prepared for God's\nservants when His kingdom of glory shall come. He concluded by placing\nbefore the children his last remaining copy of the book in gold and\nblue, and offering it as a prize to the most industrious pupil, on\ncondition of his reading it aloud to his companions.\"\n\n\"'Oh! That is just like the book which makes my mother sad!' cried a\nlittle barefooted boy from a corner of the room.\"\n\n\"My father started at the words, for he thought of that which he well\nremembered having placed in his lost pocket-book!\"\n\n\"'Where did your mother get one like this? How long has she had it?' he\ncried eagerly.\"\n\n\"'I don't know where she got it,' replied the child, looking down. 'I\nthink that she has had it about a week; she laughed when she began to\nread it, but, before she had done, she was crying as I never saw her\ncry before.'\"\n\n\"After the lesson was over, and my father had received the oft-repeated\nfarewells and good wishes of his pupils, not unmixed with tears, which\nwent warmer to his heart than all the praises of man could have done,\nhe laid his hand on the arm of the barefooted boy, and gently drew him\nalong with him down the steep staircase, until they stood together in\nthe street.\"\n\n\"'I should like to see your mother,' he said to the boy.\"\n\n\"'She lives quite near, just round the corner; I will take you to her\nif you wish it,' replied the child.\"\n\n\"'Am I foolish to indulge this strange hope?' thought my father, as\nhe followed his little guide. 'But nowhere else have I seen any books\nlike my three, and it may be that the Almighty has granted me a clue\nby which to find out the lost property of my master, and clear my own\ncharacter from suspicion.'\"\n\n\"With a heart beating faster than usual, my father was led by the boy\nto a neighbouring house, as low and dirty as the one which they had\njust quitted. They ascended to a room upon the second floor, where a\nwoman sat alone, engaged in reading. At the first glance my father\nrecognised the book which she held in her hand. It is that, Walter,\nwhich you now see in the possession of his son.\"\n\n\"The exclamation which he uttered startled the woman; she turned round\nhastily with an expression of fear on her face\u2014the book dropped from\nher hand as, gazing wildly on my father, she exclaimed, 'It is he! Oh\nwhat strange fortune has brought him here!'\"\n\n\"'Not fortune,' said my father with emotion, as he raised the little\nbook, 'but, as I believe, a gracious Providence, who will surely bring\nboth guilt and innocence to light.'\"\n\n\"'I knew it\u2014I knew it!' cried the woman, clasping her hands. 'Since the\nnight when I robbed you I have had no peace; that book has been like a\nsword in my conscience\u2014I would have restored what I had taken, had I\nknown where to find its owner, and see\u2014see my own child has led him to\nmy door!' Hastening to a corner of her room, with trembling hands she\nopened a deal box, and frees the very bottom of it, under heaps of rags\nand rubbish, she drew forth my father's lost pocket-book!\"\n\n\"Think, only think, how much delighted he must have been to see it!\"\ncried Nelly.\n\n\"He could scarcely believe that he was not in a dream when the wretched\nwoman placed it in his hand; and when on opening it he saw the two\nbank-notes, a feeling of overpowering, thankfulness filled his soul,\nand made him unable to speak.\"\n\n\"'Take it\u2014it is just as when you lost it\u2014I dared not change the notes,'\nsaid the woman; 'and oh I have mercy on a wretched creature; do not\ngive me up to the police! It was my first theft; indeed, indeed it was,\nand I will never be guilty of one again!'\"\n\n\"Did your father give her up to punishment?\" inquired Walter, with\ninterest.\n\n\"No; he was full of compassion for the unhappy woman, and never, as\nlong as she lived, lost sight either of her or her son. He was able to\nprocure for her a little employment from his master\u2014set her thus in the\nway of honestly earning her living, and had reason to hope that that\nSabbath evening was the turning-point of her life.\"\n\n\"And your father, I suppose, kept his situation after all?\"\n\n\"He kept it for many years, and lived respected even by those who were\nstrangers to the principles by which he was guided during life. He\nwas, indeed, as the faithful servant, ready girded, and watchful for\nthe coming of his Lord. Happy those who thus watch and wait for His\nappearing, who expect it not with fear, but with hope and joy; God's\nkingdom has already begun in their hearts, they count no effort great\nto win souls to His service, and the acts of their lives, as well as\nthe words of their lips, seem to say:\n\n                      \"THY KINGDOM COME!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n\"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.\"\n\nTHE Sabbath dawned upon the village of E\u2014, the day which the Lord has\nappointed for His own, that day which, when kept holy to religion and\nrest, leaves an especial blessing behind it. About two hours before the\ntime for attending morning service, Viner took his little Bible in his\nhand, and walked with his daughter to the sea-beach, where, seated on\na shelving shingle, with the wide ocean heaving and sparkling before\nthem, they enjoyed together a quiet time for reading and speaking of\nthe things of God.\n\nOn their return, to their utmost surprise, they found the shop open,\nthe shutters down, and Walter placing some vegetables on the board.\n\n\"O father!\" exclaimed Nelly, \"Has Walter forgotten what day it is?\"\n\n\"What are you doing?\" said Viner, as he entered. \"My shop always is\nclosed upon Sundays; I thought that I had mentioned this to you before.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied the boy, \"you did so, but look there!\" And he pointed to\nthe tempting display in Goldie's window. \"Is he to have all the custom\nand the cash, he who is ten times richer than you are!\"\n\n\"What he has\u2014what he does is no excuse for me; it is not for him that I\nmust answer before God. Put up those shutters again, Walter.\"\n\nWalter obeyed sullenly, with a look which told that he was not at all\nconvinced of the wisdom of the order. Viner then drew him into the\nshop, and said, \"Is not one of the Ten Commandments, given from the\nmouth of the Lord God Himself amid the flames and thunder of Mount\nSinai, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day; in it thou shalt\ndo no manner of work'?\"\n\nWalter nodded assent.\n\n\"Is there not a blessing for those who obey this command? Look here,\"\nsaid Viner, opening his Bible, and pointing to these words from the\nfifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah: \"If thou turn away thy foot from the\nSabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath\na delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not\ndoing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking\nthine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I\nwill cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed\nthee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord\nhath spoken it.\"\n\n\"That may have been so once, but I don't believe that it is so now,\"\nsaid Walter.\n\n\"God knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning, He is 'the same\nyesterday, to-day, and forever!'\"\n\n\"I only know,\" muttered Walter, \"that the way in which you go on is the\nway to starve.\"\n\n\"Do you believe that our Heavenly Father ever suffers any one to starve\nfor obeying His commandment?\"\n\n\"I can't tell,\" replied Walter, still rather surlily.\n\n\"Do you believe that He, to whom all the treasures of earth and heaven\nbelong, who created the world and every living thing upon it, is able\nto provide for our wants?\"\n\n\"I believe that the Almighty is able.\"\n\n\"But you doubt that He is willing?\"\n\nWalter was silent.\n\n\"I must speak to you again from His Word, that Word which can never\nbe broken.\" Viner turned to the thirty-third Psalm and read\u2014\"'Behold,\nthe eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in\nHis mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in\nfamine.' Again, in the thirty-seventh Psalm it is written\u2014'Trust in\nthe Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou\nshalt be fed. A little that the righteous man hath is better than the\nriches of many wicked. I have been young, and now am old, yet have I\nnot seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.'\"\n\n\"Oh! Remember the word of the Lord Jesus Christ\u2014'Take no thought,\nsaying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall\nwe be clothed? for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need\nof all these things; but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His\nrighteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' Walter,\nGod will more than make up to us for all that we may lose for His sake!\"\n\n\"You'll never convince him! You'll never convince him!\" cried Goldie,\nwho, passing the shop, had overheard the last words, and now stood\nleaning his stout person upon Viner's little gate. \"You can't persuade\nhim but that I am growing rich, and that you are growing poor; that\nI am getting on, you going back in the world. All your preaching\nwon't shut his eyes to that. Why, here am I able to send my son to a\nfirst-rate school, able (I grant that it's a hard pull on my purse,\nbut yet somehow I can manage it) to place him with an engineer, where,\nwith talents like his, he is pretty sure at last to make his fortune! I\nshall see him one of these days riding in his own carriage, for I have\nlet no idle fancies, no silly superstition, prevent me from doing the\nbest for my family, and that is the way to grow rich.\"\n\n\"'The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow\nthereto,'\" murmured Nelly.\n\nViner turned and smiled on his daughter.\n\n\"I wonder that you don't think of your child,\" said Goldie, \"if you\ndon't care about starving yourself.\"\n\n\"I do think of her,\" said the father earnestly, \"and in obeying and\ntrusting my God, I feel that I am doing the best thing for her both in\nthis world and the next.\"\n\n\"We shall see,\" said Goldie as he walked away.\n\n\"Yes, we shall see,\" repeated Viner quietly.\n\n\"Do you really think,\" asked Walter, as soon as the fruiterer was\nbeyond hearing, \"that God would be angry with you just for selling upon\nSunday when He knows that you are so poor?\"\n\n\"When a parent gives a command, is he content that it should be\ndisobeyed? When a friend makes a promise, is he content that it should\nnot be believed? When a king passes a law, is he content that it should\nbe broken?\"\n\n\"Ah! But this law may be easy for the rich, but it is so very, very\nhard for the poor!\"\n\n\"Is it hard,\" replied Viner gently, \"that we should give up something\nfor Him who has given us all? Let us remember the grace of our Lord\nJesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes, He became\npoor! He was rich, indeed, for the Son of God sat on the throne of\nheaven; He became poor indeed, for the Son of Man had not where to lay\nHis head! 'He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without\nsin; and inasmuch as He suffered being tempted, He is able to succour\nthem that are tempted.' He knows\u2014He feels for our trials!\"\n\n\"The faith of His early followers was far more severely tried than\nours. They had to endure not only want, but tortures, mockings, cruel\ndeaths, for the sake of the Master whom they loved. And do you think\nthat any martyr at the stake then, or any saint on his death-bed now,\nthought or thinks that he has done or given up too much for the Saviour\nwho gave His life for him?\"\n\n\"Oh no!\" exclaimed Nelly, \"Never! Only think of the glory and the\ncrown! It is better to walk barefoot on a thorny way, and know that we\nwill come to a kingdom at the end of our journey, and be happy for ever\nand ever, than to roll along in a golden carriage, and to feel that\nevery minute brings us nearer and nearer to misery that never will end!\nWe never can be really happy but when we do God's will like the angels!\"\n\n\"How do the angels do God's will?\" said Viner.\n\nThe child paused a moment to think, then replied, \"Faithfully, readily,\njoyfully.\"\n\n\"But the angels have not to suffer God's will as well as to do it,\"\nobserved Walter.\n\n\"No,\" replied Viner, \"in this, man alone has the honour of following\nthe steps of his Lord! We only are able, in this our short life, to\nimitate Him who in agony prayed, 'Not my will but Thine be done!'\"\n\nWalter had nothing to answer; he remained silent, though scarcely\nconvinced. The convict's son could not feel the full force of the\nScripture:\n\n \"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and\n  lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?\"\n\nNor knew he yet how much is comprised in the prayer:\n\n         \"THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n\"Give us this day our daily bread.\"\n\nI WILL now pass over a space of ten years, with all its joys and\nsorrows, its hopes and fears, and take my reader once more to E\u2014.\n\nThe village has grown into a town: tall rows of houses stretch along\nthe coast, on one side a square is commenced, and though \"the season\"\nis now nearly over, enough of life and bustle remain to denote a\nflourishing watering-place. There is, however, little change to be seen\nin the small humble dwelling of Viner, and almost as little alteration\nin the appearance of its master, who, save a few more gray hairs, a\nfew more furrows on his cheek, looks much the same as when he appeared\nbefore us last. We shall, however, scarcely recognise Nelly in the\ntall, delicate girl, who has almost grown into the young woman; or the\nconvict's son in the powerful youth, who still serves in the shop of\nhis benefactor.\n\nHow has time passed with them during these long years? They seem to\nhave made little progress in the road to fortune\u2014has the promise of the\nLord been to them in vain? No; though life has been a struggle with\npoverty and care, it has been a struggle cheered by love and hope; the\nbread earned by virtuous industry has been so sweet, the sleep after\nlabour so calm; unkind words, peevish complaints have in that dwelling\nbeen unheard, the peace of God rests like sunshine upon it!\n\nI cannot, however, say that Walter's spirit never fretted against\npoverty, that he never longed to place those whom he loved above all\ndanger of want. He had learned much of religion beneath Viner's roof;\nhe had seen its power to comfort the soul under trials, but he was yet\nyoung and impetuous in all his feelings, his faith was weak, his will\nunsubdued; in life's school he had yet much to learn.\n\nAnd never had his faith been more tried than now, for Nelly, without\nany apparent complaint, seemed gradually losing all strength and\ncolour, and looked like a flower fading away. She had for some years\ntaken in needlework, to eke out her father's scanty living; she had\nworked early and late with cheerful industry, and perhaps overtasked\nher powers. With deep anxiety, Viner and his adopted son watched her\npale cheek and drooping form, and the gentle smile which seemed to\nbelong rather to heaven than to earth.\n\nViner consulted a doctor for his daughter, who shook his head, said\nthat she had been overworked and under-fed, and prescribed as necessary\nfor her recovery nourishing food and rest. Oh! How Walter longed for\nriches then\u2014how Viner felt the cross of poverty lies heaviest when\nthose whom we love are in want!\n\nThe father laid his trial before his Lord; he earnestly prayed, with a\nchild-like faith, for a sufficiency of daily bread! He rose from his\nknees submissive and calm; he had placed his sick child at the feet of\nhis Saviour, and while he determined that no lawful means should be\nleft untried to increase her comforts, he rested his hopes upon Him who\nonce said, \"According to thy faith be it unto thee.\"\n\nBut to Walter it was more difficult thus to pray and wait, to let\npatience have its perfect work. Nor was it want of faith in God's\npromises alone that gave bitterness to the spirit of the young man.\nOne passion that struggled in his breast robbed him entirely of that\ninward peace which lightened the burden of Viner. It was with feelings\nof mingled resentment and envy that Walter regarded Ned Goldie, the\nfruiterer's son. From him, he had received, when he first came to\nthe village, that insult which still rankled in his mind, an insult\nfollowed by many others; for Ned was reputed a wit in E\u2014, and the\ncheapest way of making people merry is by laughing at and ridiculing\nothers. There was no end of Ned's jests upon the convict's son, which\namused for a moment, and were then forgotten by all but him at whose\nexpense they were made.\n\nAnd Ned was in a position to raise some envy amongst those of his own\nclass in life. Singularly favoured by nature\u2014handsome, intelligent,\nfull of health and spirits\u2014Ned was a favourite with all. Often would\nhe drop in to spend a half-hour at Viner's quiet home. Nelly could not\nbut own that he was a very pleasant companion; his playful words (in\nher presence they were never ill-natured) often brought a smile to her\npale face. Viner liked and felt interested in the merry-hearted lad; to\nWalter alone his society was as wormwood and gall.\n\nThen it was known that Ned was to succeed to his father's prosperous\nbusiness, as his elder brothers were already provided for. Aleck\nhad risen in the world even beyond his father's hopes. Possessed of\nuncommon talents, he now shared his master's business; a bridge that\nhe had planned had made his name well-known, and he had just formed\na marriage, which had raised him at once to fortune, with the only\ndaughter of a retired coal merchant. The words of Goldie, spoken ten\nyears before, had been verified, he had lived to see his son have a\ncarriage of his own!\n\nMat had been apprenticed to some business in London. It was noticed in\nthe town that his parents spoke less frequently of him, that inquiries\nafter his prospects were answered shortly by his father, and made his\npale, sickly mother look sad. People could not forget his unchecked\nhabit of gambling, his profane language, his love of bad company: it\nwas even rumoured that he had got into some scrape in London, but\nnothing certain was known upon the subject. This, and Mrs. Goldie's\nfeeble state of health, seemed, however, the only drawbacks upon the\nprosperity of the fruiterer; his increasing stoutness and the ruddiness\nof his face told of comfort, good living, and an easy life.\n\nIt was at this period, when to win money for Nelly was almost the first\ndesire of Walter's heart, haunted his dreams by night, was his first\nthought on waking, that a thin old gentleman, in a snuff-coloured coat,\nthat looked a good deal the worse for wear, flourishing in his hand a\nlittle carved stick, passed along the street of E\u2014. He stopped opposite\nGoldie's shop, and looked in, as if studying the prices on the fruit,\nthen turned round and glanced at Viner's humble window, hesitated,\ntwisted his stick round and round, and then chose the poorest and\ncheapest-looking shop.\n\nHe was the first visitor who had come that day, and unpromising a\ncustomer as he looked, his entrance was a welcome sight to Walter,\nwho was serving alone in the shop. The youth's patience, however, was\nnot a little tried, as, after a half-hour spent in questioning and\nbargaining, and trying to beat down the price of what already scarcely\nyielded any profit, the old gentleman departed with a bag of nuts,\nleaving one fourpenny piece on the counter.\n\n\"He must be either terribly poor or terribly stingy,\" thought Walter.\n\"His face looked as sharp as the monkey's head carved upon his stick;\nthat's a man, I'll answer for it, who will never let himself be cheated\nout of a farthing!\"\n\nWalter busied himself in rearranging the fruit, which he had displaced\nto show to his troublesome customer. His mind was full of painful\nreflections, and it was not for a little time that he perceived\nthat the old gentleman had left his pocket-book behind. It was an\nold worn-looking article, that might be of the same date as the\nsnuff-coloured coat; Walter went to the gate to look out for its owner,\nbut the gentleman was nowhere to be seen.\n\n\"Perhaps his name and address may be written inside,\" thought Walter;\n\"I had better open it and look.\"\n\nHe unclosed the book, and in the pocket found, indeed, a note directed\nto Mr. Sharp, Marine Row; but there was something else that Walter\nfound in that pocket, something on which he fixed his gaze with a\nstrange emotion, till his hand trembled and his heart beat fast! It was\na bank-note for \u00a350 wrapped round some money! The pocket-book almost\nfell from the grasp of the youth, a thought of Nelly and her poverty\nflashed across his mind; here were riches before him, dare he touch\nthem!\n\nWhen the convict's son first came beneath Viner's roof, he would not\nhave hesitated to grasp the fortune placed within his reach, the strong\ntemptation would at once have mastered conscience! Walter would have\nrushed on the fatal career of the thief! But the Spirit of God had\ntouched his heart; weak, imperfect as his religion might be, at least\nit was sincere and true. Walter dared not be guilty of the fatal error\nof presuming on God's mercy by committing wilful sin; he dared not\nhazard his immortal soul for gold! Hastily, he thrust the book into his\nbosom, colouring with shame, all alone as he was, at having harboured\nfor one moment the thought of theft. He unclosed the little door which\nled to the parlour, asked Nelly to supply his place at the counter,\nthen, without venturing one look at her thin, pale face, lest the sight\nof it should shake his resolution, he took down his hat from a peg in\nthe wall, and hastened towards the lodging of the owner of the note.\n\n\"And is it possible that one who for the last ten years has lived,\nas it were, under the wing of piety, could have felt\u2014almost acted as\na thief!\" thought Walter, as he walked on with rapid strides, more\npained at having meditated a crime, than he once would have been to\nhave committed it. \"And I have blushed for my unhappy father, have\nbeen ashamed at bearing his name, have presumed to think that in his\nplace my conduct would have been better, have almost dared to condemn\nhim in my secret soul! Had he had the advantages with which I have\nbeen blessed, who can say that I might not have looked up to him now\nas my guide and example through life! Oh! May God forgive me, forgive\nmy pride and hardness of heart, my foolish reliance on my own feeble\nstrength, my cold forgetfulness of my unhappy parent! And have mercy\nupon him, O gracious Lord! Watch over him, save him, lead him back to\nThyself, and grant that I may meet him, if not here below, yet in the\nkingdom of our Father in heaven!\"\n\nThe lodging of the old gentleman was at no great distance; it looked\nsmall, uncomfortable, and mean. A slip-shop, untidy girl answered\nWalter's ring, and was desired by him to tell her master that some one\nwished to speak with him upon business. While she shuffled up the steep\nstaircase, Walter's eye rested, at first unconsciously, upon the little\ncurved stick which Mr. Sharp had carried, and which was now placed upon\nnails in the hall.\n\n\"I think that I might cut out something like that,\" he said to himself,\n\"I shall have plenty of time in the long winter evenings; I wonder if\nan assortment of things carved in wood would be likely to sell well in\nthe season.\" The idea pleased him; there seemed to be an opening for\nhope; he might yet, by the work of his hands, be enabled to gain some\ncomforts for Nelly!\n\nFrom the top of the narrow staircase, the servant-girl called to him to\nstep up. Walter obeyed; and in a small, ill-lighted room, where dust\nlay thick on the table, and darkened the panes, and the window-curtain\nlooked as though it had never been white, Walter found the\nsharp-featured old man. His look was restless and uneasy, an expression\nof mingled hope, fear, and suspicion was in his eye, as he recognised\nthe face of Walter Binning. That expression changed to one of childish\ndelight as the youth drew from his breast the well-known pocket-book;\nthe old man snatched it with feverish impatience from his hand, opened\nit with fingers that trembled from eagerness, and not till he had\nexamined and re-examined its contents, looked at the note on this side\nand that, and counted the money again and again, did he appear to have\na thought to give to him whose honesty had restored it.\n\n\"It's all right\u2014quite right,\" he muttered at last, \"two sovereigns, a\nhalf-crown\u2014four and six. You have behaved very well, young man, very\nwell; will you accept\u2014\" the miser hesitated, fumbled with money, seemed\nto find difficulty in making up his mind, and then, as if quite with an\neffort, held out a sixpence to Walter!\n\nThe convict's son stepped back, a half-smile on his face, and, bowing\nto the miserable old man, left the room with this reflection, \"It is\nbetter to want money than the heart to spend it.\"\n\nAnd had Walter known more of Mr. Sharp, he would have been but\nstrengthened in this opinion.\n\nThe miser had begun life without a shilling, but possessed with one\nstrong desire to grow rich. He hoarded his small earnings till they\nbecame great, not from an honest wish to be independent in old age,\nbut from that love of money for its own sake which the Bible tells us\nis the root of all evil. And now he had his desire\u2014he was rich, he had\nmoney, he possessed, but he did not enjoy it! Life was to him like the\nfeast given by a queen of ancient time, where not only the dishes,\nbut all their contents, were of gold, and the wondering guests rose\nunsatisfied and hungry from their magnificent repast!\n\nMr. Sharp almost grudged himself his necessary food; he could never\nask a blessing on his daily bread; his very soul seemed buried in his\nheaps of treasure. And now he was drawing near to his grave, and that\ntreasure must be left behind! No one loved him, no one would mourn for\nhis loss; he knew but too well that his money would be far more prized\nthan ever he himself had been. God had dealt with him as with the\nIsraelites of old\u2014He gave them their desire, but sent leanness withal\ninto their soul; and the man who possessed wealth without a blessing\nwas poor and miserable indeed!\n\nSo Walter gave back the pocket-book and its rich contents, and gained\nnothing at all by his honesty?\n\nDo you call it nothing to tread earth with a free, fearless step, to\ndread looking no man in the face? Do you call it nothing to have a\ncharacter unstained, to hear the voice of an approving conscience, and\nto be able to ask in prayer for those blessings which we have taken no\nguilty means to obtain?\n\nThe thoughts of Walter were full of new plans of industry, while he\nmore slowly returned to his home. As he approached the little gate\nof Viner's shop, some one came out of it into the street, bidding a\ncheerful good-bye to those within. It was with a feeling of annoyance\nthat Walter saw the only being on earth whom he really disliked\u2014Ned\nGoldie, the fruiterer's son.\n\nThe youth nodded to him as they met, with a sort of free-and-easy,\npatronising air, which was intolerable to Walter Binning.\n\n\"I am glad to find Nelly so much better to-day,\" said Ned.\n\n\"She does not look better to my eyes,\" replied Walter gloomily. \"She\nseems daily weaker, and it is my conviction\u2014\"\n\n\"Your conviction!\" exclaimed Ned, with a loud burst of mirth. \"Oh!\nI did not know that things had come to that pass! I was aware that\nViner had kept you ten years on your trial, but never heard of your\nconviction till now!\"\n\n\"Insolent boy!\" cried Walter, clenching his hand, his blood mounting to\nhis temples, his eye flashing fire! Ned might have had reason to repent\nhis idle jest, had not Viner, who had overheard the words that passed,\nlaid his hand firmly upon the arm of Walter, and drawn him away within\nthe gate.\n\n\"Would you be the slave to your passions?\" he said in a low voice, \"And\nshow the world that a Christian can neither bear nor forbear.\"\n\n\"I could forgive neglect,\" muttered Walter, \"could forgive wrongs; but\nthis contempt, this scorn, this ridicule! I wonder,\" he exclaimed,\nalmost indignantly, \"that you, who value only wisdom and virtue, can\nendure this trifling, silly, conceited\u2014\"\n\n\"Yet generous-hearted boy,\" said Viner, pointing to a fine hare that\nlay upon the counter. \"He has kind thought for others with all his\nfaults, he know that nourishment was ordered for my Nelly.\"\n\nWalter started, and felt angry with himself that the sight of food so\nmuch needed should give him an emotion of pain rather than of pleasure.\nBut to Viner, who, even in the smaller events of life, recognised the\nhand of an overruling Providence, the timely gift from the kindness of\nan earthly friend seemed an answer sent to his earnest prayer:\n\n               \"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n\"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against\nus.\"\n\n\"NELLY, what are you thinking of\u2014you look sad?\" inquired Walter on the\nfollowing morning, which happened to be Sunday.\n\n\"I was thinking of you,\" she replied gravely.\n\n\"And was that a thought to give you pain?\" said Walter, sitting down at\nher side, \"Tell me, Nelly, what were you thinking of me?\"\n\n\"I am afraid\u2014perhaps you would be vexed or angry\u2014\"\n\n\"Vexed I may be, but angry with you, never! Have I done anything to\ndisplease you?\"\n\n\"It is not so much what you do, Walter, as what I fear that you feel.\nIt seems to me\u2014I trust that I am wrong\u2014but it seems to me that you\nalmost hate Ned Goldie.\"\n\n\"It is natural that I should\u2014he is always insulting me!\"\n\n\"It is natural, Walter; but is it right? Father has so often told us\nthat the adopted children of God must struggle against and overcome\ntheir evil nature, must try, with God's help, to gain a likeness to\ntheir Father\u2014to be merciful as He is merciful, forgive as He forgives;\nif we do not try this, with faith and with prayer, we have no right to\nthink ourselves God's children at all.\"\n\n\"Can you prove that from the Bible?\" said Walter.\n\n\"I think that I can,\" replied Nelly, after a moment's thought. \"It is\nwritten, 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.\nWhosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth\nnot his brother.'\"\n\n\"That last verse has brought another into my mind, Nelly, which has\noften given me a feeling of uneasiness. It is from the same chapter, I\nbelieve. 'Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no\nmurderer hath eternal life abiding in him.'\"\n\n\"O Walter! You who know so well what is right, can you, in the face of\nsuch words, still nourish hatred!\"\n\n\"Nelly, I have no more power to love that boy than I have to move the\ncliffs into the sea!\" exclaimed Walter.\n\n\"Ask for power\u2014ask in faith; remember the Lord's promise, 'By faith\nye shall remove mountains,'\u2014'All things are possible to him that\nbelieveth.' O Walter!\" continued Nelly, speaking rapidly and earnestly,\ntill the blood rose to her pallid cheek, \"this is not a work to be\nset aside or delayed; remember that until you forgive you cannot be\nforgiven, that as long as you live in hate, you are living in danger,\nthat your very prayer is turned against yourself when you say, 'Forgive\nus our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us!'\"\n\nWalter leaned his brow upon his hand, and remained for some moments\nburied in thought; then raising his head he said, \"I believe that I\nmight like Ned Goldie better if you and your father liked him less; but\nto see you welcome and speak kindly to one who does not even pretend to\nbe religious, who is thoughtless, worldly, vain\u2014\"\n\n\"O Walter! Only think how he has been brought up! How could you expect\nhim to be otherwise!\"\n\n\"He is certainly likely to learn little good at home.\"\n\n\"And would you have us drive him away when he comes in a spirit of\nkindliness to the house of a man like my father, whose words and\nexample may, by little and little, draw him to better things.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you are right, Nelly,\" said Walter, with a sigh, \"and I have\nnot acted the part of a Christian in either feeling or speaking as I\nhave done. When I recall what I myself was\u2014what I am still\u2014I take shame\nfor my own harsh, uncharitable spirit. I will ask for help from above,\nto struggle against this besetting sin.\"\n\n\"And pray for him too!\" said Nelly earnestly. \"We never are sure that\nwe have forgiven our enemies till we are able heartily to pray for\nthem.\"\n\n\"I will,\" answered Walter with an effort.\n\n\"And you will forgive me for speaking so plainly to you, brother?\" said\nthe girl, holding out her thin, wasted hand.\n\nHis reply was a silent press.\n\nIt was now time to attend church, and accompanied by Viner, they\nproceeded on their way towards the house of God. On the road they met\nNed, who was going down to the beach, his back turned towards the place\nof worship. He stopped to wish Viner and his daughter good morning, but\ntook no notice whatever of the convict's son.\n\n\"Where are you going, Ned?\" said Viner.\n\n\"Down to the boat,\" replied the youth. \"I shall take a sail while the\nsunshine lasts, I have not had one for the last three days.\"\n\n\"I wish that you would come with us to church,\" said Nelly, in her\ngentle persuasive tones.\n\n\"No, no! The morning service is so long\u2014maybe I shall in the afternoon.\nMind, I make no rash promises,\" laughed the boy; \"I am no great\nchurchgoer, you know!\"\n\n\"I wish that I could persuade you, Ned,\" said Viner gravely but kindly,\n\"that the only way to real happiness is to fear God and keep His\ncommandments.\"\n\n\"Let me be happy in my own way for a while,\" cried Ned. \"I dare say\nthat I shall think like you one of these days, when I am a sober,\ngray-headed old man.\"\n\n\"Life is uncertain,\" interrupted Viner.\n\n\"Therefore I'll enjoy it while I can!\"\n\n\"And death\u2014\"\n\n\"Oh! I've time enough to think about that!\" cried the youth, waving\nhis hand as he sprang down the shingle, so light and agile, so full of\nhealth, and strength and spirit, that it seemed as though many years\nwere indeed before him.\n\nWalter fulfilled his promised to Nelly; he prayed fervently and humbly\nfor the Spirit of grace, that Spirit which God has promised to all who\nask in faith\u2014that Spirit whose fruits are long-suffering and love. A\npeace seemed to come into his heart as he prayed, a peace to which\nhis soul had long been a stranger\u2014he could think of his enemy without\nbitter feeling, and even ask for a blessing upon him.\n\nWhile the congregation were yet in the church, the violent rattling of\nthe windows told of the sudden coming on of a storm; and as soon as\nthe door was opened at the close of the service, the blast of cold air\nwhich swept in was so strong, that but for the help of her father's\narm, Nelly could scarcely have stood against it. The whole sky was\ncovered with dark leaden clouds, sweeping on rapidly one after another;\nthe wind had swelled into a gale, while the broad dashes of foam over\nthe whole extent of waters, and the waves that rolled on and broke\nupon the beach, flinging high in the air their showers of white spray,\nshowed the fury of the raging storm!\n\n\"I hope and trust that Ned Goldie is not on the sea!\" exclaimed Nelly.\n\nA crowd was collected on the shore, which was now increased by the\ngreater part of the late congregation. Every eye was strained in one\ndirection, where a little boat was seen, tossed like a nut-shell on the\nfoaming waves, and many an exclamation of pity or of fear burst from\nthe anxious lookers-on.\n\n\"I'd not for a hundred guineas be in that boat!\" said one. \"He'll never\nget her into shore.\"\n\n\"I thought she'd have capsized then!\" exclaimed another. \"Why on earth\ndoes he not take in the sail?\"\n\n\"Isn't it Ned Goldie?\" said Mrs. Winter, who, prayer-book in hand,\nstood one of the foremost in the crowd. \"He'd better have been\nlistening in his place in church than taking his Sunday pleasure, poor\nfellow!\"\n\n\"Heaven have mercy upon him!\" faltered Nelly, clasping her hands, and\nlooking with terror upon the little boat, which seemed half swallowed\nup amidst the swelling billows.\n\n\"It is he! It is my boy! Oh! Can no one save him?\" shrieked the voice\nof his wretched mother, as she stood with arms extended wildly towards\nhim, the wind blowing back the hair from her pale horror-stricken\nface\u2014watching the boat that held the idol of her heart.\n\nAnother awful gust. The boy was seen in the boat, vainly trying to furl\nthe fluttering, struggling sail; then there was a cry heard even above\nthe roaring storm.\n\n\"She's over! She's down! He's lost!\" The mother lay senseless on the\nbeach\u2014her son was struggling in the midst of the waves! \"God have pity\non him! He cannot swim!\" cried Mrs. Winter.\n\nNelly had closed her eyes in horror, a word from her father made her\nlook round in new fear.\n\n\"Is it not madness to attempt it?\" said Viner.\n\nWalter had stripped off his coat and waistcoat, and was preparing to\nplunge into the surf.\n\n\"O Walter!\" exclaimed Nelly, stretching out her hand; but she dared not\nutter the entreaty that rose to her lips\u2014she dared not stop him in the\ncourse of duty.\n\n\"Pray for me!\" whispered Walter. There was no time to say more\u2014the next\nmoment she saw him battling with the waves.\n\nMotionless as a statue the young girl stood, able to utter no word, but\npouring out her whole soul in fervent agonised prayer! Now a head and\noutspread arms were seen on the waters, then were lost again, as a huge\nswelling billow rolled on, as though to sweep away the swimmer, or bury\nhim beneath its weight!\n\nNelly was like one in a terrible dream; she heard nothing of anything\nthat passed around her but the rush of the wind and the roar of the\nwaves; she saw nothing but the wild tossing waters, save when she\ncaught a moment's glimpse of Walter. Happy was it for Ned's wretched\nmother that she was beyond reach of either hearing or seeing!\n\nWhen Mrs. Goldie recovered from her swoon, she found herself in the\nnearest house, which happened to be that of the baker. Her wild\npassionate inquiries received no reply but looks of sorrow and pity;\nand unable to endure the terrible suspense, the poor woman sprang from\nthe bed on which she had been laid, and in the strength of her despair,\nnotwithstanding every effort to detain her, rushed back to the spot\nwhere the sight of an assembled crowd directed her impetuous steps.\n\nAlas! For the sight that awaited her. Viner was kneeling upon the\nshingle, supporting on his bosom the head of a youth, into whose\ncolourless lips he was pouring some spirits, and Nelly, at his\nside, with trembling eagerness, was watching the signs of returning\nanimation. Mrs. Goldie gave one wild, searching look, and passed\non\u2014the face was not that of her son. A little farther on lay a corpse,\nin which life had for some time been extinct. Stiff and cold he was\nstretched in death, the young, the beautiful, the strong\u2014oh! How\nchanged! In vain every method to restore him had been tried\u2014the heart\nand the pulse had ceased to beat, the sparkling eye was glazed, the\nlaughing lip silent; in the midst of his pleasures, his follies, his\nsins, Ned Goldie's spirit had been summoned to appear before his Maker!\n\nWe will dwell no longer upon a scene so sad\u2014no words can paint the\nanguish of the desolate mother! We will rather reflect upon the comfort\nwhich it was to Walter, when following the poor youth's remains to the\ngrave, to feel that Heaven had enabled him to triumph over his better\nfeelings, and even to hazard his life for the sake of one whom he had\nonce regarded with hate. His efforts to save Ned had been in vain, he\nhad only succeeded in dragging the body to the shore; but he had done\nall that it was in his power to do; he had treated an enemy as he would\nhave treated a brother; and he no longer felt self-condemned by his own\nwords when he prayed:\n\n           \"FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THEM\n                   THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n\"Lead us not into temptation.\"\n\nE\u2014 was now becoming completely emptied of visitors. Every lodging put\nup its hopeless label\u2014\"To let\"\u2014in the reading-room no one thought\nit worth while to attend; the shore was left to the fishermen, and\nscarcely a bonnet was seen in the streets!\n\nWalter worked busily and well at his new occupation. He had really a\ntaste for carving, and every article that he made was an improvement\nupon the last. It was a great pleasure to him to hear Nelly admire his\nelegant sticks and beautiful boxes, and suggest little alterations and\namendments.\n\nBut still there could be no sale for anything that he made until the\nseason when visitors should return, and with the long dreary winter and\nbleak spring before him, Walter began seriously to consider whether\nhe should not leave E\u2014, and seek for employment elsewhere. In vain\nhe tried to persuade himself that he was wanted in the shop; Viner's\nbusiness was so small that he could well manage it himself. The scanty\ngains were hardly sufficient for the bare support of three; were Walter\nin another situation, he might increase the little store.\n\nVery dear had his quiet home become to Villa's adopted son, he could\nhardly bear to leave it; and as he found by inquiry that there was\nlittle hope of obtaining employment near E\u2014, he knew that to seek it,\nhe must go to some distance, and be separated, perhaps for many years,\nfrom those whom he most loved upon earth.\n\nThe thought of this lay like a weight upon his heart, and often made\nhim sigh heavily as he sat at his work. As yet he had not spoken on the\nsubject either to Viner or Nelly, but he knew that the time was come\nwhen it would be necessary for him to do so.\n\nThree days after the funeral of poor Ned, Mrs. Winter entered the\nlittle gate; Viner was alone in the shop at the time, but the sound\nof her voice drew Nelly and Walter from the parlour, where they had\nboth been engaged in their work. \"You have just come from our poor\nneighbour's,\" said Viner. \"How is Mrs. Goldie this morning?\"\n\n\"Oh! Poor soul, I have scarcely left her since that terrible day! She's\nbreaking, she's breaking fast\u2014she will never hold up her head again!\"\n\n\"Oh! Hers has been indeed a heavy trial!\" murmured Nelly.\n\n\"Most heavy,\" said her neighbour, \"and she's quite sinking under it.\nI've known mothers in sorrow for their children before now, but never\nin sorrow like hers! There are many who receive deep wounds in the\nheart, but its sin that puts poison on the edge! This poor creature is\nalways reproaching herself, always weeping over the wrong that she did\nto her child, though I am sure that she was but too fond a mother.\"\n\n\"'Oh! Had I known that his days were to be so few,' she cries; and then\nbursts into an agony of grief, and refuses to receive any comfort.\"\n\n\"Oh! Do you not speak to her of the Saviour?\" cried Nelly.\n\n\"I have spoken, and our worthy clergyman has spoken; for, strange\nenough, Goldie sent for him. But it seems as if religion rather added\nto her pain; for when she hears of the mercy and goodness of God, she\nsobs out, 'Why did my poor boy never know Him!'\"\n\n\"And Goldie,\" said Viner, \"how does he bear up?\"\n\n\"He looks much as usual, perhaps a little thinner; but he does not give\nway like his wife. I think that his heart is hardened by selfishness;\nand yet it has its warm corner too. He certainly has done a great deal\nfor his children, has given them all that he could, except the best\nthing of all!\"\n\n\"I am sure that he must feel this blow,\" said Nelly.\n\n\"He neither speaks about Ned, nor will hear others speak; he cannot\nbear his wife's grief, so keeps out of her way; he scarcely sees her\nfrom morning till night\u2014she'll not trouble him long, poor thing!\"\n\n\"I had trusted that affliction would have drawn him near to God,\" said\nViner.\n\nMrs. Winter shook her head. \"People may talk about great changes,\"\nshe said, \"but depend upon it, when a man has gone on for sixty years\nthinking of nothing but getting on in the world, it's as easy to raise\nthe dead as to make him turn to religion! We know that there have been\nmiracles, but we do not dare to expect them; and it would have been a\nmiracle indeed had that man's heart been raised from the world! I fancy\nthat Goldie has more trouble in his family before him, at least if it\nis true what is said about Mat. After the way in which he has brought\nup his sons, he must expect to reap as he has sowed.\"\n\nViner never encouraged gossip, therefore asked his neighbour no\nquestion that might lead her to continue the subject. She turned\nsuddenly towards Walter and said, \"I'm forgetting the thing that I\ncame for\u2014I bring you a message from Goldie. I think that he feels\ngrateful\u2014at least as grateful as such a man can feel\u2014for your attempt\nto save his poor boy. He wishes you to stop over and see him; I hope\nthat he is going to do something good for you, Walter.\"\n\nThe shutters of Goldie's shop, which had been put up before the\nfuneral, had been again taken down, and except that one bright young\nface was seen there no more, the place looked much as usual. Walter\nfound Goldie in the back parlour\u2014his poor wife had never left her\nbed. Of how much comfort and ease that parlour told, with its nice\nfurniture, carpet, little mirror above the mantelpiece, and framed\nportraits of the three sons hung on the wall! Yet to Walter's eye there\nwas something deeply sad in the place, where comfort might be, but\nhappiness was not.\n\nGoldie received the youth kindly. Whatever remembrances the sight of\nWalter must have brought to the mind of the bereaved father, he showed\nlittle emotion on meeting, his voice might be somewhat tremulous, that\nwas all\u2014there were no tears nor signs of deep sorrow.\n\n\"I owe you something, Binning,\" he said, holding out his hand, \"and\nI am not the man to forget it. You must be making a poor thing of it\nat Viner's, I should say\u2014perhaps you are beginning to look at for\nsomething better?\"\n\nHe stopped, as if for an answer; Walter made no reply, but listened\neagerly to what was to follow.\n\n\"Mine is a large business,\" said Goldie, a little proudly, \"and besides\nthat, I have a house and lodgings to let, as you know, at the other end\nof the town. I shall want assistance in the shop, especially now that\nMrs. Goldie is ill, and\u2014\" he paused, for he would not allude to the son\nwhom he had lost\u2014\"and I should be happy, Binning, to take you in, with\na handsome salary now, and a prospect of future partnership if we find\nthat we suit one another.\"\n\nThe heart of Walter leaped with delight! The prospect of comfort,\nindependence, without separation from his friends, seemed so much\nmore than he had ever dared to hope, that his first feeling was one\nof unmixed joy! The second, however, was of difficulty and doubt, and\nGoldie read it in the changing expression of his face.\n\n\"Well, what do you say to it?\" cried the fruiterer rather impatiently.\n\"Is not my offer a fair one?\"\n\n\"Most kind, most generous, and I shall accept it with gratitude, if I\nmay only be assured that in serving the shop I shall never be required\nto do anything against my conscience.\"\n\n\"Your conscience! Oh! That is some of Viner's cant\u2014that won't do with\nme,\" cried Goldie. \"If you live with me, you must do as I do, and have\nnone of your nonsense about Sunday. You had better understand that\nclearly from the first, and put your conscience in your pocket, like a\nsensible man.\"\n\n\"Then I'm afraid\u2014\"\n\n\"Don't make a foolish decision in a hurry, that you will be sorry for\nall your life. There's a customer just come in, I see, I must go to the\nshop to attend to him. Remain here, and think over the offer that I\nhave made; you'll never have such another chance of getting on well in\nthe world.\"\n\nWalter sat alone in Goldie's back parlour, buried in deep anxious\nthought, drawn in opposite directions by two strong powers\u2014duty on\none side, inclination on the other. There were so many reasons for\naccepting Goldie's kindness: he would be independent, he could help\nhis friends, he would see them every day\u2014perhaps he might even do some\nspiritual good in the house of this irreligious man. But to all this\nconscience had but one answer. If he who asks the Almighty to lead him\nnot into temptation, wilfully, with his eyes open, throws himself into\nit, how dare he hope for the protection of Heaven?\n\nShould he deliberately agree to disregard God's commandment, how could\nhe ask or expect that a blessing should attend him? Nelly's favourite\ntext seemed to ring in his ears\u2014\"The blessing of the Lord, it maketh\nrich, and He addeth no sorrow thereto.\"\n\nWhen Goldie returned from his customer, he found Walter with his mind\nquite made up. Gratefully, but firmly, the youth declined his offer,\nand Viner's adopted son returned to his humble home, not, perhaps,\nwithout some feeling of regret, but with a comfortable consciousness\nin his mind that, however foolish man might think his decision, he had\nacted wisely in the sight of Heaven.\n\nAnd let me pause one moment to entreat my reader, before he takes any\nimportant step in life, thus to make conscience his first counsellor\nand friend. Providence may place us in situations of temptation, and\nthen we have every encouragement to struggle on bravely, putting our\ntrust in the promised aid of Him who is able to make us more than\nconquerors. But let us beware how we place ourselves in such, confiding\nin our own power to resist evil.\n\n\"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;\" let him\navoid the place and the society that may draw him into sin; and never\nforget that the prayer put into the mouths of all by One who knew our\nweakness and our proneness to err, was:\n\n                 \"LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n\"Deliver us from evil.\"\n\n\"THE very sight of his handwriting makes me feel uneasy,\" thought\nGoldie, as the postman placed in his hand a letter, bearing the London\npost-mark. He walked into his parlour, and broke open the seal, and\nwith many an expression of annoyance, and even anger, read the contents\nof the letter.\n\n\"Why, this is worse than I even feared! Evil tidings indeed! That boy\nseems to have been born to be the torment of my life! What a world this\nis\u2014full of vexations and troubles! Here am I, who have been labouring\nall my life for my children, doing all, sparing nothing, making every\neffort; and just when I hoped that I should have some comfort at last,\none of them is taken away, and the other\u2014worse! Well,\" continued he,\nviolently ringing the bell, \"something must be done, and at once. Aleck\nis prosperous and rich, that is one good thing, he will do something;\nI must see him directly. There is no use in showing this letter to my\nwife, she is fretting herself to death already.\"\n\nThe servant-girl hurriedly answered the bell.\n\n\"Bring my boots and great-coat,\" said Goldie, \"and tell your mistress\nthat I'm called away on business, and may not be back till to-night\nor to-morrow morning. I think I'll sleep at Aleck's,\" he continued,\nspeaking to himself. \"The nights are so bitterly cold at this season,\nand I've no mind to get an attack of rheumatism.\"\n\nWith a heavy heart the fruiterer took his place in the railway train\nthat was about to start for Brighton. It was a bleak November day,\nand the dull prospect and the chill biting wind seemed quite in\nharmony with his feelings. When the Christian suffers, he can look to\nHeaven, and comfort himself with the thought that his portion is not\nhere; but when the worldly man loses earthly joy, he is losing his\nall, his only treasure, he has nothing to hope for beyond! The only\ncomfort to Goldie's mind in his distress was the prosperity of Aleck,\nhis favourite son; and even in the midst of his sorrow for the two\nothers, it was a proud feeling to the father that he was going for the\nfirst time to see him settled in a home of his own, a wealthy man, a\ndistinguished man, one who could help to raise the whole family.\n\nGoldie took a conveyance from the station, he had never yet been to\nhis son's house in Brighton, and, indeed, was a stranger to the whole\nplace, as he had rarely quitted his shop in E\u2014. As he stopped at the\ndoor of a comfortable-looking dwelling, a carriage containing a lady\ndrove off; he had but a glimpse of her face in a fine bonnet, whose\ncrape flowers and shining bugles seemed expressly designed to make\nmourning look as lively as possible; he knew her to be the wife of his\nson, and not a little proud the fruiterer felt to be able to call such\na fine lady his daughter.\n\nGoldie's loud knock at the door was answered by a servant in livery.\nEven the painful errand upon which the father had come could not\nprevent his exulting in the idea of grandeur so new to him! He would\nhave passed in at once, as into his own shop, but the footman stood in\nthe doorway, eyeing him saucily from head to foot.\n\n\"Is your master at home?\" said Goldie, trying to push forwards into the\nhall.\n\n\"Not at home,\" replied the man, half-closing the door.\n\n\"Then I'll wait till he comes in. I must see him. Where has he gone?\"\n\n\"You can't see him; he sees no one, he's expecting his hairdresser.\"\n\n\"His hairdresser!\" exclaimed Goldie. \"But I am his father!\" And pushing\nthe astonished footman aside, he entered the house, and was at once\nguided by the sound of a well-known whistled air to the room in which\nAleck was seated.\n\n\"Is that you, de la Rue? Why\u2014how\u2014can it be!\" exclaimed the young man,\nrising in surprise on the sudden entrance of his father. He had not\nbeen him since the death of poor Ned, and scarcely knew in what manner\nto meet him.\n\n\"You did not think to see me here,\" said Goldie, grasping his hand;\n\"but I have come upon business, urgent business, Aleck. Sit down,\nmy dear boy, I will let you know all. I could not rest till I had\nconsulted with you.\"\n\nAleck throw himself down again on his luxurious arm-chair, with an\nuncomfortable persuasion that something disagreeable was coming, us his\nfather drew from the pocket of his coat a letter, which he knew to be\nin the handwriting of his brother.\n\n\"That will tell its own tale,\" said Goldie, handing it with a sigh to\nhis son.\n\nFrowning and biting his lip, Aleck read the letter to himself \"This\nis bad indeed\u2014very bad,\" he said, as he handed it back to his\nfather. \"What an unreasonable sum he requires\u2014he shows very little\nconsideration for you.\"\n\n\"And I have not the money!\" cried Goldie, earnestly. \"I really have not\nthe money, were it to save him from the gallows. My house did not let\nwell this year\u2014the season is over\u2014I have had heavy expenses\u2014poor Ned's\nfuneral\u2014your mother's constant illness\u2014everything seems to go wrong\nwith me now! Your brother's ruined\u2014positively ruined, if he cannot\ncommand this large sum, and I've no one to look to\u2014but you.\"\n\n\"Me!\" exclaimed Aleck, raising his eyebrows, and pushing back his chair\na little. \"It is impossible that I can help you, quite impossible; you\nhad better understand that clearly at once; I have a wife to think of,\nyou know.\"\n\n\"He is your only brother now\u2014\"\n\n\"An extravagant, unprincipled fellow! Are those who have gone on\nsteadily through life to pay for the follies of such!\"\n\n\"If you would but assist me\u2014\"\n\n\"I tell you, it's impossible!\" cried Aleck, raising his voice.\n\n\"You will live in luxury,\" said Goldie, glancing reproachfully round at\nthe elegant, luxurious apartment of his son, \"and leave your brother to\nbe ruined, disgraced\u2014\"\n\n\"That is his own fault, not mine,\" replied Aleck.\n\n\"If not for his sake,\" cried Goldie more earnestly, \"for mine\u2014for your\nmother's\u2014your poor afflicted mother's! She is almost broken-hearted\nalready with her loss; a blow like this would bring her to her grave.\"\n\n\"All this is very unpleasant,\" said Aleck, rising impatiently. \"I tell\nyou it's not to be done.\"\n\n\"You forget,\" said his father, his face flushing with anger, \"you\nforget all the sacrifices made for yourself. How I scraped every pound,\nevery sixpence together to place you at an expensive school, to give\nyou an education without which you could never have risen as you have\ndone; how I was in debt for years to raise the sum required to set you\nout in life to such advantage; how I\u2014\"\n\n\"There's the hairdresser!\" cried Aleck, with a look of relief. \"I'm\nsorry that I shall be engaged this evening. Won't you take a glass of\nwine before you go? Shall I order my servant to call a fly? I really am\nafraid of your delaying your return, for at this time of year, it is\ndangerous for persons of your age to be out in the cold night-air.\"\n\nGoldie could not for a minute speak\u2014he was actually choking with\nmingled passion and grief. Then recovering himself, he went up close\nto his son, and said in a low, thrilling tone, \"If no other motive\nwill touch you, think of yourself. The disgrace of your family must be\nshared by you; remember that you bear the same name!\"\n\n\"That decides me upon doing what I have thought of before\u2014changing it\nfor that of my wife.\"\n\nGoldie rushed from the house, as from the den of a serpent, with a\ndetermination never to enter it again. The reed on which he had leaned\nhad pierced him to the heart, all that he had hoped for once had been\nattained only to make him more wretched. Vanity of vanities was written\nupon what he had most loved! And yet what right had the worldly man to\ncomplain! He had taught his children to break the Fourth Commandment,\ncould he wonder that they disregarded the Fifth: he had lived all his\nlife in rebellion and disobedience to his Heavenly Father and dare he\nhope to find affection in his own children!\n\nEvils were thickening upon him\u2014troubles unsanctified, and therefore\nintolerable. The ruin of Mat gave the finishing stroke to the misery\nof his unhappy mother. She lay on her death-bed, broken-hearted,\ndesponding! Goldie had seen one son cut off in the flower of his days,\nanother was dragging him down to poverty and shame, the third, his\ndarling, the pride of his soul, had inflicted on the heart of his\nparent perhaps the deepest wound of all.\n\nSickness, bereavement, and far sharper poverty had visited the home of\nViner; but to him every evil had brought forth good, every evil was\ncertain to end in joy. In the words of the suffering apostle, he could\nsay, \"Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a\nfar more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!\" But oh! The bitterness\nof spirit of him who has lived for the world, and sought nothing\nbeyond, when he finds at last that his idol is but dust and ashes? With\nregret for the past, disappointment in the present, and no hope to\nbrighten the future\u2014only age, and the grave, and the judgment before\nhim\u2014he, indeed, is tasting of the dregs of life\u2014is reaping a harvest of\nwoe! Poverty may rouse industry, sickness show forth patience, sorrow\nincrease submission\u2014death lead to glory\u2014Sin is the one great evil to be\nfeared. O Lord!\u2014\n\n                      \"DELIVER US FROM EVIL.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n\"For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.\"\n\nTHE hail was falling fast, drifted by the piercing wind which howled in\nthe chimneys, and seemed to shake the dwelling.\n\n\"I wish that my father had come back,\" said Nelly, as she returned\nagain from the little gate whence she had been anxiously watching for\nher parent.\n\n\"Our good clergyman will keep him under shelter,\" said Walter, \"he will\nnot be back till this hailstorm is over!\"\n\n\"I almost dread his return,\" sighed Nelly. \"I know that I ought to wish\nhim success in his endeavours to procure that situation for you in\nLondon\u2014and yet\u2014\"\n\n\"You feel, surely, that it is right that I should go?\"\n\n\"It is right, Walter,\" replied the girl. \"To remain here in E\u2014 would\nbe only to suffer with us, not to help us. If it should please Heaven\nthat you should return\u2014if you should over come back\u2014.\" She could not go\non, but turned her head aside to hide the tears that would have their\ncourse.\n\n\"I will return, Nelly\u2014if I live, I will! It is only to relieve you of a\nburden that I quit you. I will work hard\u2014save hard for your sake.\"\n\nAt this moment a poor, gray-headed man slowly made his way up the\nstreet. He seemed almost beaten back by the pelting hail, and stopping\nas he reached Viner's little shop, leaned on the gate as if for support.\n\n\"Let us ask him to come in to shelter,\" whispered Nelly\u2014and Walter\nimmediately invited him to step in.\n\nThe gray-haired man obeyed in silence\u2014with a step so faltering, a look\nof such emotion, as though the voice of kindness were strange to him,\nthat the hearts of the young people were touched with compassion. They\nhad not read in vain the injunction in the Bible\u2014\"Use hospitality\nwithout grudging: be not forgetful to entertain strangers;\" but without\nwaiting for any request from the weary man, they brought him dry\nclothes, asked him into the parlour, and offered him a chair by the\nfire.\n\nThe guest was not yet past the strength of manhood, but all its life\nand spirit appeared gone. His face was wrinkled, its expression sad,\nhis hand trembled as if with age, and when he at last spoke his voice\nwas faltering and low.\n\n\"Here is one who has drunk deep of the cup of sorrow,\" thought Nelly,\nand her manner, ever gentle, became more kindly than before.\n\n\"Shall I set food before him?\" she whispered to Walter.\n\n\"By all means\u2014he looks ready to faint.\"\n\n\"But, Walter\u2014we have but a half-loaf left in the house, and our till is\nto-day quite empty!\"\n\nThere was a look of meek submission on her pale face, that went to the\nheart of Walter.\n\n\"Yet give to him, Nelly, let him share that loaf\u2014'He that giveth to the\npoor lendeth to the Lord.'\"\n\nNelly smiled, and set the bread upon the table.\n\n\"God bless you, and reward you a thousandfold!\" said the guest\u2014not\ntouching, however, the proffered food, but looking around the\ncomfortless abode with an expression of interest and sadness.\n\n\"Is this house yours?\" he at last said to Walter, fixing his dark eyes\nearnestly upon him.\n\n\"Oh no! It belongs to my adopted father, whose name you see over the\ngate.\"\n\n\"And your name?\" said the stranger.\n\n\"Is Walter Binning.\"\n\nThe guest remained silent, and the silence lasted so long, that at\nlength it became painful, and Nelly, in order to break it said:\n\n\"I fear that you have known much sorrow?\"\n\n\"Such sorrow as I trust that you may never know!\"\n\n\"But the Lord can bring light out of darkness,\" said Walter.\n\n\"He can indeed\u2014bless you for the word!\" cried the stranger suddenly,\nclasping his hands, and turning towards the young man with a look of\nmingled sorrow and joy. \"God can bring light out of darkness\u2014good\nout of evil! He can bring the sinner to His feet, and the rebel to a\nthrone\u2014all things are possible to Him! Were you to know my story,\" he\ncontinued more rapidly, \"you would indeed wonder at the power of God,\nto whom belongs the kingdom over the hearts of men! If ever there was a\nsinner\u2014I was one; if ever there was a soul stained by guilt\u2014that soul\nwas mine? I had struggled against conscience, I had turned from my God,\nI was rushing on in the broad way that leadeth to destruction, and yet\nthe hand of mercy could find me even there!\"\n\nWalter and Nelly listened with interest and surprise to a confession so\nfrank and so unexpected. The stranger went on, in his rapid, earnest\nmanner, as though he found it a relief to his heart to pour out its\nfulness.\n\n\"It is well, my children, it is well that you should know something\nof the man whom you have welcomed to your hearth. I once was young,\nunsuspicious as yourselves; mine was a kind heart, and a free open\nhand; I neither thought of want nor feared temptation. From how slight\na cause men's ruin may spring! At a place of amusement, I once met with\na youth. I found him pleasant; we conversed\u2014met again and again; he\nbecame my companion\u2014most dangerous companion! He was one who despised\nreligion, and laughed at the word conscience; he gained an influence\nover my young mind, and made use of it to ruin his so-called friend!\"\n\n\"As you love your peace\u2014as you love your own soul,\" continued the\nstranger, addressing himself earnestly to Walter, \"oh! Avoid the\nsociety of such! Let my fate be to you like a beacon on a quicksand, to\nwarn you from that which brings destruction!\"\n\n\"He took me to scenes from which I once would have shrunk; he led me\ninto habits which I should once have blushed to form; I acquired a\nthirst for amusement and excitement, and where was I to find means\nto gratify that thirst? I was then a poor apprentice in London; a\ngenerous friend had paid the sum required by my master, for I myself\nwas a penniless orphan. I was not only without money, but in debt, and\nfollowing a career which plunged me deeper and deeper into it. I had\nbut little credit\u2014no means of gaining money. Oh! When conscience is\nstifled, and religion set aside, how easy is the transition from the\ndebtor to the thief! My companion first taught me to embezzle from my\nmaster. My guilt was suspected; I was seized, sent to prison; a day was\nappointed for my trial. As my character until now had been considered\nrespectable, I was admitted to bail, and the same generous friend, who\nhad helped me before on my setting out in life, became my security now.\"\n\n\"It is better, indeed, to relate what followed; but I wish you to know\nall\u2014I would have nothing concealed. I felt that my case would not stand\na trial. I was visited again by my evil companion, the tempter who had\nled me to disgrace. Urged by him, or rather by my own guilty fears, I\nbroke faith with my friend, escaped into France, and led there a life\nthe remembrance of which would bow me to the dust had I not learned to\nhope that even the chief of sinners might find mercy.\"\n\n\"I married, lost my wife in the first year of our union, then returned\nto my own country under a false name; and in company with men as guilty\nas myself, supported myself by the gains of dishonesty.\"\n\n\"Why should I tell all this,\" exclaimed the stranger, \"but that you\nmay shun the paths in which I fell\u2014that you may learn from one who\nspeaks from terrible experience, that there is no wretchedness on earth\nlike that of guilt\u2014and flee betimes from the approach of the tempter!\nThere may be the loud laugh, the burst of wild mirth, the feast, the\nrevel, the intoxicating draught; but oh! The bitterness, the sickening\njoylessness within, where the soul dare not turn its gaze on itself,\nwhen it seeks excitement to stifle thought, when solitude is terrible,\nreflection intolerable.\"\n\nWalter thought of the miser's fifty-pound bank-note, and lifted his\nheart in gratitude to Him who had saved him in the hour of temptation.\n\n\"At last,\" resumed the stranger, \"what I dreaded happened; the strong\nhand of the law arrested me in my wretched career of guilt. I was sent\nto Newgate, tried, condemned. I deserved my sentence\u2014I knew that I\ndeserved it; but my soul rebelled against its just punishment. I was\nbecoming hardened and reckless in misery, hardened in despair.\"\n\n\"And thus might I have sunk lower and lower, till I had perished at\nlast in my sin; but the day before I was sent from my country, leaving,\nas I believed, not one friend behind, I received a letter from the same\nbenevolent man who had twice before been ready to aid me. At a time\nwhen I was brought down, crushed to the dust, when all the rest of the\nworld shunned and despised me, that man came forwards, unwearied in\nwell-doing, and offered to do me an important service, which I dared\nnot have asked of a brother.\"\n\n\"The letter enclosed a little book, 'Baxter's Call to the Unconverted,'\nwith an earnest request from the writer that I would read it once\ncarefully over. At another time, I would have flung it aside with\ncontempt, if not with anger; but my heart was softened by unmerited\nkindness\u2014I could not refuse the only request made by one to whom I was\nindebted for so much. Doubtless that book was sent with prayer, and\ncarried a blessing with it.\"\n\n\"I read it. It showed me my own fearful state, even more fearful than I\nhad believed it to be; but it did not leave me to despair. It told of\nmercy and pardon even for the worst of sinners; it told of the blood\nthat washes away guilt, of the Spirit that can give a new, clean heart;\nit told of the power of religion over the human soul; and I believed\nit; for the character of the man who had given it showed forth the\nreality of that power.\"\n\n\"Oh! That I could see and know that man!\" exclaimed Nelly.\n\n\"You know him. That man is\u2014your father!\" cried the stranger, springing\nforwards to meet Viner, who entered at that moment, and throwing\nhimself into his arms.\n\nViner had returned disheartened and sad, for he had been unsuccessful\nin his efforts to obtain a situation for his adopted son. There are\ntimes when even the true Christian feels his faith weak. Viner had\nfound it difficult to strengthen his heart in the Lord; he seemed like\nPeter when sinking in the waves.\n\n\"Lord, help me!\" was his silent prayer. He came back in sorrow, he was\nmet by joy. The little seed which, ten years before, he had sown in\nfaith, had sprung up to bear a thousandfold; the voice of thanksgiving\nwas in the dwelling of the righteous; the Almighty had not been trusted\nin vain.\n\nOh! What a blessed answer to Walter's prayers! With what joy he looked\nupon his restored parent, and received the blessing of his long-lost\nfather. It was some time before anything like composure was restored to\nthe circle, or the older Binning could continue his account.\n\n\"Let no one presume on the goodness of God, because He has sometimes\nworked wonders of mercy, and saved him whom man would condemn. Terrible\nis its awakening to a soul that has long gone on in a course of sin;\nthey who never have wandered so far from the right way know not the\ndifficulty, the anguish of retracing their steps! If any would learn\nwhat it is to repent, let him study the fifty-first Psalm of King\nDavid; there the sorrows of a broken and contrite heart are expressed\nby one who himself had felt all the bitterness of deep remorse; how\noften, my son, have I wept over that Psalm, and applied every verse to\nmyself; praised be God that I could also repeat words from the same\ninspired writer, and trust that might be written for me\u2014'Blessed is the\nman whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! Blessed is\nthe man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.'\"\n\n\"After I had had reason humbly to hope that I had received pardon for\nmy sins through the merits of my Saviour, my mind naturally turned to\nthe thought how I could make some amends to man for all the wrongs\nthat I had done him. My debt to Viner, above all, lay heavy on my\nconscience; and as soon as the term of my punishment was over, I\ndetermined never to return to my country till I had earned sufficient\nto pay it. I worked like a slave in a land where toil brings a far\nhigher reward than it does here. I grudged myself even my necessary\ncomforts; I broke on the hours of my needful rest, till the great\nobject of my efforts was attained. God blessed my labours beyond my\nhopes; I gathered sufficient to cover my debt, and worked my way home\nas a common sailor, that I might not encroach on my earnings.\"\n\n\"And now, with what pleasure do I return what I owe,\" continued\nBinning, laying bank-note after bank-note on the table\u2014\"return what\nI owe! I can never return it! You helped me in trouble,\u2014you saved me\nfrom despair, you have brought up my son to virtue, industry, and\nreligion\u2014were I to pour out my life's blood for you now I could never\nrepay you what I owe!\"\n\n\"O my God!\" exclaimed Viner, looking upwards, while tears of gratitude\nforced their way down his cheeks. \"To Thee be the honour, to Thee be\nthe praise\u2014\"\n\n       \"FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n\"For ever and ever.\"\n\nAGAIN nearly ten years have passed, and for the last time we revisit\nE\u2014, now a thriving, populous town. Where is the little shop with its\nwooden gate, where Viner so long passed his humble but useful life, and\nbore the yoke of poverty so meekly? We now look in vain for the spot\nwhere it stood\u2014like other earthly things, it has passed away, another\nbuilding now occupies what was once its site, its place remembers it no\nmore.\n\nBut the large shop on the opposite side of the street is standing\nyet, and looks more flourishing than ever, with its baskets of ripe\nplums and tempting peaches, decked out with branches of cut flowers in\nthe windows. A young woman is within, engaged in tying up nosegays,\nherself fresh and blooming as the flowers. Her own little blossom, her\nfirst-born child, is perched upon the counter beside her; and often the\nmother stops in her pleasant employment to imprint a fond kiss on his\ndimpled cheek, or bid her little one try to call \"Father!\"\n\n\"Ah! Darling, you must not spoil the pretty flowers,\" she said\nplayfully, as the child seized upon a rose. \"Do you not know that\nthis is mother's wedding-day, and when father comes in, he must find\neverything looking bright and beautiful for him! I must give you over\nto grandfather's care\u2014if he will look after my troublesome pet! There,\nis he not a darling\u2014are you not proud of him!\" cried Nelly, as she\nplaced her blooming boy in the arms of Viner.\n\nMrs. Winter at this moment entered the shop. She had grown old, and\nnow wore widow's weeds, but her face was still placid and cheerful as\nbefore.\n\n\"I have brought you the cake, Nelly,\" said she, laying an elegant\nsugared pyramid before her. \"Is it not fit for a wedding-day feast? Do\nyou remember just this day twenty years ago, when you were no higher\nthan this counter, your coming to my shop to buy half-a-dozen biscuits\nas a treat for your expected new brother? Ah! He is more to you now\nthan he was then!\"\n\n\"How can I remember so far back!\" laughed Nelly.\n\n\"It seems to me as though it were scarce a day since! There stood\nGoldie\u2014poor man! Who once owned this shop\u2014a prosperous man he was then!\nHe laughed, I remember, at your childish honesty, laughed at your\nfather's kind adoption of Walter\u2014he thought only of getting on in the\nworld! And what has it all come to at last! There is now another name\nabove his door, there is another face behind his counter\u2014he lies in the\nchurchyard beside his poor wife, and his very name is almost forgotten!\nAnd this is the end of his labours and his cares, his rising up early\nand late taking rest\u2014his flattering, and toiling, and unscrupulous\nways! All that is left to him now of his gains is a coffin, and a\nshroud, and a few feet of earth!\"\n\n\"Alas! Poor Goldie,\" said Nelly sadly, \"He was unfortunate!\"\n\n\"Unhappy, if you will, but not unfortunate; fortune had nothing to do\nwith either his lot or your father's. Worldliness, Sabbath-breaking,\nneglect of religion only brought forth their natural fruits to\nGoldie\u2014while all Viner's present happiness and prosperity arose from\u2014\"\n\nThe old man turned towards her with glistening eyes, pressing his\nlittle grandchild closer to his heart, while he closed her sentence\nwith Nelly's favourite text\u2014\"'The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich,\nand He addeth no sorrow thereto.'\"\n\nWalter now entered with a springing step and bright eye. His child\nstretched out his little arms to go to him, and Nelly greeted her\nhusband with a smile.\n\n\"You see that I have not forgotten what day it is,\" he said, laying\ndown on the counter a beautifully carved box, with his wife's name\ncut on the lid. \"That is my wedding present for you, dear Nelly; as\nit has pleased God to prosper us so well in business, and between my\ncarving and your fruit selling, we now have enough and to spare, I have\nresolved to keep a poor box from this time, and on the first day of the\nweek, as St. Paul recommends, lay aside of our earnings for the needy.\"\n\n\"Well, Viner,\" observed Mrs. Winter, as she was leaving the place, and\nturned to bid farewell to the aged Christian, on whose silvery hair\nand venerable brow the rich glow of the setting sun was falling, \"if\nI were asked to name a truly happy man, I should not have far to look\nfor one\u2014I should point to you in your arm-chair there, with your loving\nfamily around you.\"\n\nYes, the bright calm sunset was a beautiful type of the old age of\nthe pious Christian! He looked back on an honest, well-spent life,\nhe looked forwards to a better life to come; the present was full of\nrichest blessings, but the richest of all was the hope of heaven that\nbrightened the thoughts of the future! His adopted son was now his son\nindeed; his daughter was happy in the love of one whom he himself had\ntrained to industry and piety; and now, honoured and beloved, he was\ndrawing towards his home, at peace with his God, and at peace with\nmankind\u2014his hoary head a crown of righteousness!\n\nBut think not that upon his faith or his good works Viner rested his\nhope of glory! He would have shrunk from the thought as much as the\npoor convict who now slumbered beneath the shadow of the church, with a\nsingle text inscribed on his tomb\u2014\"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth\nfrom all sin!\"\n\nAnd now, young reader, before you close these pages, pause and consider\nwhat was the difference between Viner and Goldie, between the man of\nthe world and the servant of God. As Mrs. Winter had observed, it was\nno strange chance, no wonderful turn of fortune, that gave happiness to\nthe one or misery to the other. Review their story, and you will see\nthat exactly as they sowed, they reaped\u2014that the portion which each\nchose, he received\u2014that blessings naturally sprang from the conduct of\nthe one, disappointment from the acts of the other.\n\nAnd oh! If even in this world, God's children are the happiest, what\nwill it be in the world which is to come! On this earth our harvest\nis only begun, whether of holy joy or the sorrows of sin. But when\nages upon ages have rolled on, when the heavens and the earth have\npassed away, then still the unrepenting will be suffering, the faithful\nenjoying in eternity!\n\nFrom this hour resolve which path you will choose\u2014life or death are now\nset before you. If you choose the world and its pleasures of a season,\noh! Remember that the wages of sin is death. Youth must pass, strength\nmust pass, life itself must pass away, with all that it could give here\nbelow; but the Christian shall dwell in the mansions of light\u2014shall\nrejoice in unchangeable bliss with his God\u2014\n\n                    \"FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: THE LORD'S PRAYER.]\n\n\n   Our Father in heaven,\n     We hallow Thy name,\n   May Thy kingdom holy\n     On earth be the same;\n   Oh! Give to us daily\n     Our portion of bread;\n   It is from Thy bounty\n     That all must be fed.\n\n   Forgive our transgression,\n     And teach us to know\n   That humble compassion\n     Which pardons each foe.\n   Keep us from temptation,\n     From weakness, and sin;\n   And Thine be the glory,\n     For ever, Amen.","title":"The adopted son : $b or, illustrations of the Lord's prayer","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":23439}