Frederica and her Guardians Part 21

"All that the Bible says of Him. Have you heard about Him at all, my child?"

"Yes. In the New Testament. We believe all that. What is the first, Fred? Oh! I remember: 'Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.'"

And Frederica added, "'And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, G.o.d with us.'"

"We are to believe that He saves His people from their sins," said Selina. "Does that mean us too? Who are G.o.d's people?"

"They who seek to know Him. They who love Him, and do His will. They whom He loves and will save."

There was a pause of some minutes; then Selina said,--

"We seek to know Him, and--I love Him. I do not know how to do His will."

"His will is written in His Word, and He Himself will teach you," said the stranger.

Then Tessie broke in flippantly,--

"But how are we to know? Some say one thing, and some another. Father Jerome says it is the last thing we should do--to read the Bible for ourselves. And how are we to know?"

"But we do read it," said Frederica. "And there is no use in asking what Mr Jerome St. Cyr would wish us to do."

"But for my part, I think he is quite as likely to be right as those others," said Tessie. "There are many more who are of his opinion than of ours. And it would be a shocking thing to say that all the crowds of people who go to his church are all wrong."

"Hush, Tessie dear, and listen," said Selina. "Mama dear, are you very tired? Would you like to hear more?"

If Selina could have seen her mother's face, she would not have asked.

"Tell us more!" said she.

"Begin at the beginning," said Fred, and she read, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise."

But the beginning was before that, he showed them. The beginning was when, because of sin, man's need began--when the first promise was given, and G.o.d said "that the woman's seed should bruise the head of the serpent." He showed them how, the Divine law being broken, Divine justice required satisfaction, and how One had said, "Lo! I come to do Thy will, O G.o.d!" He went on from promise to promise, from prophecy to prophecy, showing how all that went before was but a preparation for the coming of Him who was promised, who was "to save His people from their sins."

Much that had been mysterious, even meaningless, in the things which they had read--the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the prophecies--became significant and beautiful as types of Him who was both sacrifice and priest, dying that His people might live. The old man did not use many words, and almost all of them were words with which the reading of the Bible had made them familiar, but they came to them with new meaning and power from his lips.

He told them how the ages had been waiting for Him who was called "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty G.o.d, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;" and how, "when the fulness of the time was come, G.o.d sent forth His Son;" how "He bare our griefs, and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; the chastis.e.m.e.nt of our peace was on Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

He spoke to them of Him as the son of Mary, as the babe in Bethlehem, and yet the Leader and Commander of His people. He reminded them how He lived and suffered; how He spake wonderful words, and did wonderful works; how He pitied, and taught, and healed the people; how He loved them, and how He died for them at last.

At last? No, that was not the last. He told them how the grave, that had held in bonds all the generations that had pa.s.sed away, had no power to hold Him; how He had broken the chains of death, nay, had slain death, and how He had ascended up to heaven, to be still the Priest of His people, and their King. He told them that it was His delight to pardon and receive sinners who came to Him; that He would not only pardon and save from the punishment of sin, but take away the power of sin over the heart; so that instead of loving it, and yielding to it, sin would become hateful to the forgiven child of G.o.d, because G.o.d hated it. He told them how G.o.d kept His people safe in the midst of a world at enmity with Him, and how all things were theirs, because they were Christ's; and how nothing, "neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, can separate them from the love of G.o.d which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

He told them that He was preparing a place for those who had loved Him, and that Death--no longer an enemy--was to come as His messenger to take them into His presence, there to dwell for evermore. And most wonderful, all this was G.o.d's free gift. None were too sinful, or weak, or wayward, to be saved by Him, who asked only to be trusted and loved by those to whom He freely offered so much. Wonderful indeed, beyond the power of words to utter.

"Mama," said Selina, touching her mother's hand, "I think I see it now."

The mother turned her eyes from the radiant face of the blind girl to the face of the stranger again.

"Will you trust Him?" asked he gently. "He is able and willing to save."

"May I?" said she eagerly; "I, who can do nothing? I, who have never in all my life thought about these things? Ah! if it were possible!"

"Believe it. It is true."

"But is there nothing we must do?" said Frederica doubtfully.

"There is nothing you need do to win His love. There is much you can do to prove your love to Him. 'If ye love me, keep my commandments,' He said. And 'we love Him because He first loved us.'"

"And is there no good in all that Miss Agnace has told us?" said Tessie.

"Indeed, Fred, it is not that I wish to be disagreeable. But Miss Agnace prays to the Virgin and to the saints, and she goes to confession. She says that is the only right way, and you know Miss Agnace is a good woman. And Mr Jerome--"

Mrs Vane's eyes and Frederica's were turned on the stranger; and Miss Agnace, who had been listening unseen, came forward at the sound of her name. The old man looked gravely from one to the other, and said,--

"'He that believeth on the Son hath life.' Of Him it is said, 'Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name given under heaven among men, whereby we can be saved.' Of Him it is said, that He 'hath redeemed us not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with His precious blood. Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree.' Of Him it is said, 'In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.' Truly He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto Him by faith. They who put their trust in Him need no other saviour. 'Other foundation can no man lay, than is laid down, which is Jesus Christ.'

"This is G.o.d's truth, taught us in His Word. I do not desire to judge those of whom you speak. It is through Christ, once offered for sins, that they too can be saved."

Mrs Vane made a movement to enjoin silence when Miss Agnace would have spoken; and then the stranger, kneeling down, said, "Let us pray;" and Mrs Vane and Selina for the first time heard the pouring out of a good man's heart to G.o.d. What he asked for them need hardly be told: that Christ might reveal Himself to them as one mighty to save; that He might dwell in them by His Spirit, to make them holy and happy, and ready for an entrance into "the inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and which fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for those who love Him;"

that even _now_, believing in Him, they might have "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

Every heart went up with his as he prayed. Even Miss Agnace listened and joined in supplication, wondering and moved.

"And shall we never see you again?" said Frederica, as he took her mother's hand to say farewell.

"I cannot tell. I am only pa.s.sing through the town, and but for the storm I should have been already on the way. I shall never forget you."

"I think G.o.d sent you to us," said Selina.

Once more the blind girl touched softly his hand, and his face, and his silver hair. Praying, "G.o.d bless all beneath this roof," he went away.

But they never forgot him, nor the words he had spoken to them.

For Selina after that there was neither doubt nor fear. The way which G.o.d has opened for the return of sinners to Himself was clearly revealed to her. She had much to learn yet, with regard to His will and His dealings in providence; but this she knew and declared, "I love Him because He first loved me."

There were for her no anxious questionings, no groping in the dark, after that. Day by day the light grew clearer and brighter to the eyes of her soul, and she saw "wondrous things out of His law." She was at peace, and with all the power of her loving and gentle nature she set herself to help her mother toward the same peace. There was the daily reading still, and daily also, kneeling by her mother's bed, Selina asked for the blessing of peace to her mother's heart. And she did not ask in vain. As the days went on the blessing came--G.o.d gave His own answer of peace.

Peace with G.o.d! That which all those weary years of sickness and solitude this poor soul had needed came to her at last, and all was changed. Her waiting for the end, that was slowly, but surely drawing near, was peaceful, at times it was joyful. Even Miss Agnace saw the change, and thanked G.o.d for it. Sister Magdalen saw it, and doubted its reality and its sufficiency. But she was suffered to utter no word of doubt in Mrs Vane's hearing. Indeed, she hardly wished to do so.

"G.o.d may have ways of dealing with sinners of which we do not know,"

said she, in answer to Miss Agnace's anxious looks, not knowing what to say.

"Yes, truly," said Miss Agnace to herself, with a sigh of relief and comfort.

It had come to her many times of late, that the dying mother's peace must be from G.o.d, even though it had not come to her through the Church or its ministers; but she had hardly dared to believe it possible. She needed Sister Magdalen's confirming word, and took more comfort from it than Sister Magdalen had meant it to convey.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Frederica was the least happy of them all at this time. They had heard nothing as yet about Mr Vane's return; and, as must be the case in every household at every changing season, there were many things to be arranged, and some of them required a decision which Frederica was neither old enough nor wise enough to exercise; and she was troubled in various ways. She rejoiced in the new rest and peace that had come to her mother and Selina, and said to herself often, that all the rest mattered little, since it was well with them; but other things sometimes pressed on her heavily.