The Trapper's Son Part 6

In what a wretched state is man who knows not G.o.d, and loves not the Saviour! Instead of peace, goodwill, and friendly intercourse existing in that savage land, every man's hand is against his neighbour, and in each stranger he expects to find a foe.

The party, however, reached the neighbourhood of the fort without meeting any enemies. Laurence had left his friends, proud of his recovered strength, and fancying that he was about to enjoy the liberty of a savage life. He was now returning sick and weak, and a feeling of shame and doubt of the reception he might meet with stole over him. He kept behind the chief and his party, and hung down his head as they drew near the gates. They were recognised from the fort, and several of the garrison came out to give them a friendly greeting.

The old chief related how his sons had found and rescued the white-skin boy, and Laurence was brought forward just as Mr Ramsay, followed by his wife and daughter, appeared from their house. Jeanie recognised him in a moment, and running forward, took his hand, exclaiming, "Oh, Laurence, is it you? I am so glad you have come back. We all thought harm would befall you among those savage Sioux. You look pale and ill.

Oh papa! mamma! it is Laurence," she added, looking towards her parents, who were advancing.

Laurence was silent. It was so long since he had spoken English that he could not for some seconds find words to express himself. Mr Ramsay warmly shook him by the hand, and his wife welcomed him with the same cordiality, while not a syllable of reproach did they utter.

"He does indeed look ill," said Mrs Ramsay. "Come to the house, my poor boy," she said. "Your old room shall be prepared for you, and you can tell us all that has happened by-and-by."

Laurence burst into tears. The reception he met with was so different from what he had expected that it overcame him. He had borne up during the journey, but his strength now gave way; and he required almost the same attention and care that he had before received.

"I was indeed wicked and foolish in choosing to go and live with my old savage friends, instead of remaining with you, good Christian people, who are so kind to me," he said at length to Mrs Ramsay, as she sat by his bedside. "Can you forgive me?"

"Yes, indeed we can; and we are very thankful that you have been brought back to us," she answered. "G.o.d himself shows that we ought to receive those who have done wrong when they repent and desire to return to the right way. He himself in His mercy is always thus ready to receive repentant sinners who desire to be reconciled to Him. I'll read to you the parable of the prodigal son, and you will then understand how G.o.d the Father, as He in His goodness allows us to call Him, receives all His children who come back to Him, acknowledging their sins and transgressions. He not only does this, but He has pointed out a way by which the sinner can be reconciled to Him, and have all his sins completely blotted out, or put out of remembrance and done away with.

That way is by simple faith in the atoning blood of Jesus; in other words, G.o.d desires us to believe that Jesus, His own well-beloved Son, pure and holy and sinless, became man, and was punished by death on the cross instead of us; and thus His justice, which can by no means overlook or forgive sin, is perfectly satisfied with that punishment, and He considers the debt we owe Him fully paid. Can you understand this, Laurence?"

"I will try to do so," answered the boy. "But I do not understand it yet."

"Then you must pray for the aid of G.o.d's Holy Spirit to enable you to understand it; for He alone has the power of doing that. All that one person can do for others is simply to explain the truth to them, and to read G.o.d's Word to them, or urge them to read it if they can. You, Laurence, must learn to read it without delay."

"Oh, yes, I will try now," he said, "if you and Jeanie will teach me. I was very idle before."

"That we will gladly," answered Mrs Ramsay. "But, recollect, you must not only try to read, but you must ask G.o.d's Holy Spirit to enable you to understand it also. It is not sufficient to know that Christ died on the cross to reconcile sinners to G.o.d; but you must believe that He died for you, and to reconcile you to G.o.d; for without that, whatever you may do or profess, you are still in your sins, an outcast from G.o.d, and deserving, as you will a.s.suredly receive, punishment for your sins."

"Tell me, Mrs Ramsay, how am I to believe that Christ died for me? I feel that I am wicked, and very unlike what you, and Mr Ramsay, and Jeanie are, who are Christians; but I cannot think that the Son of G.o.d should have suffered death for a poor miserable boy like me."

"It's very simple. G.o.d does not give us a very difficult task,"

answered Mrs Ramsay. "All He requires of us is to take Him at His word: 'G.o.d so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' You understand, Laurence, that G.o.d does not say, only people who have have been generally well behaved, and are supposed to be good, but _whosoever_, which includes every human being, however bad and abandoned they may have been. The prodigal son had been very ungrateful and very wicked, but his father received him as soon as he came back. That parable was told by Christ himself, to show that His Father in heaven gladly receives all sinners returning to Him. When G.o.d says, 'He so loved the world,' He means the people in the world, and we know that the world lies in wickedness. Oh, trust G.o.d, for He is loving and merciful, and without doubt or fear accept His offers of reconciliation."

CHAPTER NINE.

ARRIVAL OF MR. MARTIN, THE MISSIONARY--HE PREACHES THE GOSPEL TO THE INDIANS--LAURENCE LISTENS WITH ATTENTION--LEARNS MORE OF THE TRUTH, AND EXPRESSES HIS WISH TO MAKE IT KNOWN TO OTHERS--THE SPRING RETURNS.

A keen, strong wind was blowing, driving the heavy snow which fell in small sharp flakes over the ground, when, one evening shortly after the arrival of Laurence, a dog sleigh was seen approaching the fort. The sleigh, which was simply a narrow board turned up in front, a slight iron frame forming the sides and back, and lined with buffalo skins, was drawn by six dogs, harnessed two and two, while the driver ran behind, with a long whip guiding the animals. On it came, in spite of the snow storm, at rapid speed, for the sagacious dogs knew that they had nearly reached the end of their journey. The traveller, who had faced the dangers of a long journey over the trackless wintry waste, was welcomed by Mr Ramsay, who conducted him to the house. Some time elapsed, however, before he could venture near a fire, after the bitter cold to which he had been exposed.

"We have been long looking for you, Mr Martin," said Mrs Ramsay, as she came out to greet him; "and thank Heaven that you have arrived in safety."

"We should thank the G.o.d of heaven and earth for all the blessings we receive," answered Mr Martin, who was the missionary Mrs Ramsay had been so anxious should come to form a station near the fort. "I shall be amply repaid if I am permitted to win souls to Christ in this neighbourhood."

"It will be a hard task, for they are deeply sunk in heathen ignorance,"

observed Mr Ramsay.

"An impossible task, if man alone were to engage in it," said Mr Martin. "Man, however, is but the humble instrument; G.o.d the Holy Spirit is the active agent, and with Him nothing is impossible. Let us labour on, confident in that glorious fact; and whatever may appear in the way, we may be sure that the victory will be won, not by us, but by Him, who is all-powerful."

Such was the faith in which the new missionary commenced his labours among the savage Crees of the woods and plains who frequented the neighbourhood of the fort. The glad tidings of salvation by faith in the blood of the Lamb, shed for sinful man, sounded strange in their ears. Strange, too, it seemed to them, when they were told of His great love, which made Him willingly yield himself up as an all-atoning sacrifice of His abounding goodwill; and stranger still seemed His law, that man should not only love his neighbours himself, but should love his enemies; should do good to those who despitefully use and abuse him, and should willingly forgive all who offend him, as he hopes to be forgiven by G.o.d for his offences.

Among his most earnest hearers on the first day he preached the gospel to the Indians a.s.sembled in the fort was young Laurence. He had sufficiently recovered to leave the house, though he was now always unwilling to be absent from it longer than he could help. All the time he was within doors he was endeavouring to learn to read that wonderful Book, which G.o.d in His mercy has given to man, that he may know His will and understand His dealings with mankind.

Laurence, however, as yet had made little progress in reading, but he could listen to Jeanie and her mother read to him without ever growing weary.

Still as yet his mind did not comprehend many of the more glorious truths, and he held to the idea that he himself had some great work to do, to merit the love of G.o.d and the glory of Heaven.

He asked Mr Martin how he was to set about the work. "I want to be very good," he said, "and to do something with which G.o.d will be highly pleased, and then I am sure I shall go to heaven when I die."

"My dear young friend," answered Mr Martin, "had you read the Bible, you would have found that 'there are none that do good, no, not one;'

and that 'G.o.d came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' G.o.d will certainly be well pleased with you, not from any good works which you can do, but simply if you banish all thoughts of your own merits, and put faith in His well-beloved Son; then He will a.s.suredly fulfil His promise to make you heir with Him of eternal life, and receive you into that glorious heaven he has prepared for all those who love Him."

"But I am afraid, sir, that I can never have faith enough or love enough to satisfy G.o.d."

"You certainly, my young friend, can never have too much faith or too much love," said Mr Martin. "But G.o.d does not say that He will measure our faith or our love, or our sorrow for sin, but He simply tells us to take him at His word, to show our love by our obedience; and then Jesus Christ tells us what He would have all those who love Him to do, namely, to follow His example--to make known His Gospel among those who do not know it. Have you read the account of the thief on the cross?"

"I have heard it," said Laurence. "Jeanie read it to me yesterday."

"Did it not occur to you that, when Christ told that dying thief that he should be with Him in paradise, it was not on account of his burning faith, still less because he had performed any works, or because of obedience, but simply because he believed that He who hung like himself on the cross was the Messiah who should come into the world to die for sinful men. But though He saves all who come to Him, simply if they will but trust Him, He desires these to remain in the world, as He desired His disciples, to make His Gospel known among their companions, to tell them what great things the Lord has done for their souls; while to some He gives the command to go forth with the glad tidings throughout all lands; and thus He has put it into my heart, and enabled me to come here to win souls for Him."

Day after day Laurence listened to these and other glorious truths which Mr Martin unfolded to him from G.o.d's Word, and when the missionary was otherwise engaged, Jeanie or Mrs Ramsay read to him, or a.s.sisted him in learning to read. He felt himself becoming, as he was indeed, a new creature; his old habits of thought were pa.s.sing away. He wondered sometimes how he could have thought as he had done.

"Ah, then I was in darkness," he said to himself. "I knew nothing of the love of G.o.d I knew not how sinful I was, and how He hates sin, though He loves the sinner. I knew not that G.o.d is so pure and holy that even the heavens are not clean in His sight; and I had no idea how sinful sin is, how contrary in every way to G.o.d. I had little thought that G.o.d, my loving Father, would hear the prayers of so wicked, wayward a child as I was, and as I am indeed still, if left to myself in my own nakedness; but I know now that He does not look at me as I am in myself, but as I am clothed with Christ's righteousness. Trusting in Him, I am no longer naked, but dressed in His pure and spotless robe, at which G.o.d will alone look when I offer up my prayers; and that, for the sake of His son, He listens to all who are thus clothed. Oh how thankful I ought to be that G.o.d has made known these joyous things to me!"

When, some days afterwards, Laurence expressed the same thoughts to Mr Martin, the missionary replied, "Now these things are yours, can you be so selfish as not to desire to make them known to others?"

"Oh, indeed, I do wish to make them known," exclaimed Laurence. "I should like to tell every one I meet of them, and to go forth and find people to whom to tell them."

"Before you do that, you must prepare yourself, you must be armed for the battle you will have to fight; for a severe battle it is, and you will find Satan, the great enemy to the truth, ever ready to oppose you.

The thought of this, however, will stimulate you to make the necessary preparations, by study and prayer; and I trust, Laurence, that some day G.o.d will employ you as His missionary among the savage Indians of this long-benighted land."

CHAPTER TEN.

LAURENCE LEARNS WHAT IT IS TO BE A CHRISTIAN--GETS LEAVE TO SET OUT IN SEARCH OF HIS FATHER--STARTS ON AN EXPEDITION WITH PETER, A CHRISTIAN CREE--DISCOVERS TWO OF MICHAEL'S TRAPS--A PARTY OF BLACKFEET--BLACKFEET WOUND OLD MICHAEL--BLACKFEET CAPTURED--LAURENCE GOES TO HIS FATHER'S a.s.sISTANCE--PETER PREACHES TO THE BLACKFEET, AND INVITES THEM TO THE FORT--THE BLACKFEET SET AT LIBERTY--HEARING LAURENCE EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL TO HIM--LAURENCE CONVEYS THE OLD TRAPPER TO THE FORT--NARRATES TO MR.

MARTIN HIS FORMER LIFE--MR. MARTIN TELLS HIM THAT THE QUEEN HAS PARDONED HIM--THE OLD TRAPPER AT LENGTH BELIEVES THE TRUTH--RETURNS WITH LAURENCE TO CANADA--LAURENCE RESTORED TO HIS PARENTS--REVISITS THE FORT AS A MISSIONARY.

Spring was now advancing. Laurence was anxiously looking out for the return of his father. He would, at all events, have longed to see him; but his desire to do so was greatly increased by his wish to impart to him a knowledge of the glorious truths he himself possessed. Having learned the priceless value of his own soul, he could now appreciate that of others.

Laurence's faith was simple, and he enjoyed a clear view of the gospel truth.

From every Indian who came to the fort he made inquiries for the old trapper, who was known to many of them. At length several brought tidings of his death. Laurence refused to believe them; and when Mr Ramsay came to cross-question his visitors, he found that they had only heard the report from others. Laurence, therefore, begged that he might be allowed to go out and search for the old man.

"I know all his haunts so well," he said, "that I am sure I shall find him better than any one else; he may be sick in some distant place, and unable to come as he promised."

So earnestly did he plead that Mr Ramsay, hoping that his old friend might still be alive, could no longer refuse to let him go.

A Cree who had become a Christian, and was named Peter, offered to accompany him; and Laurence thankfully accepted his a.s.sistance.

The only provision they took with them was a good supply of pemmican; but they had an abundance of ammunition, knowing that they might depend for their support on the animals they might shoot.