The House in Town Part 37

"Mr. Richmond told me to come here, you know, Norton."

But Norton looked with a disapproving eye upon what he could see of the neighbourhood; and it is true that n.o.body would have guessed it was near such a region as Blessington avenue. The houses were uncomely and the people were poor; and more than that. There was a look of positive want of respectability. But the little boy who was keeping the door was decent enough; and presently now he opened the door and stood by to let Norton and Matilda pa.s.s in.

There they found a large plain room, airy and roomy and light, filled with children and teachers all in a great breeze of business. Everybody seemed to be quite engrossed with something or other; and Norton and Matilda slowly went up one of the long aisles between rows of cla.s.ses, waiting and looking for somebody to speak to them. The children seemed to have no eyes to give to strangers; the teachers seemed to have no time. Suddenly a young man stood in front of Norton and greeted the two very cordially.

"Are you coming to join us?" he asked with a keen glance at them. And as they did not deny it, though Norton hardly made an intelligible answer, he led them up the room and at the very top introduced them to a gentleman.

"Mr. Wharncliffe, will you take charge of these new comers? For to-day, perhaps it will be the best thing."

So Norton and Matilda found themselves at one end of a circular seat which was filled with the boys and girls of a large cla.s.s. Very different from themselves these boys and girls were; belonging to another stratum of what is called society. If their dress was decent, it was as much as could be said of it; no elegance or style was within the aim of any of them; a faded frock was in one place, and a patched pair of trowsers in another place, and not one of the little company but shewed all over poverty of means and ignorance of fas.h.i.+on. Yet the faces testified to no poverty of wits; intelligence and interest were manifest on every one, along with the somewhat spare and pinched look of ill supplied appet.i.tes. Norton read the signs, and thought himself much out of place. Matilda read them; and shrank a little from the a.s.sociation. However, she reflected that this was the first day of her being in the school; doubtless when the people saw who and what she was they would put her into a cla.s.s more suited to her station. Then she looked at the teacher; and she forgot her companions. He was a young man, with a very calm face and very quiet manner, whose least word and motion however was watched by the children, and his least look and gesture obeyed. He sent one of the boys to fetch a couple of Bibles for Matilda and Norton, and then bade them all open their books at the first chapter of Daniel.

The first questions were about Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom of Babylon. Unknown subjects to most of the members of the cla.s.s; Mr.

Wharncliffe had to tell a great deal about ancient history and geography. He had a map, and he had a clear head of his own, for he made the talk very interesting and very easy to understand; Matilda found herself listening with much enjoyment. A question at last came to her; why the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hands of the king of Babylon? Matilda did not know. She was told to find the 25th chapter of Jeremiah and read aloud nine verses.

"Now why was it?" said the teacher.

"Because the people would not mind the Lord's words."

The next question came to Norton. "Could the king of Babylon have taken Jerusalem, if the Lord had not given it into his hands?"

Norton hesitated. "I don't know, sir," he said at length.

"What do you think?"

"I think he could."

"I should like to know why you think so."

"Because the king of Babylon was a strong king, and had plenty of soldiers and everything; and Jehoiakim had only a little kingdom anyhow."

"The Bible says 'there is no king saved by the mult.i.tude of an host.'

How do you account for the fact that when strong kings and great armies came against Jerusalem at times that she was serving and trusting G.o.d, they never could do anything, but were miserably beaten?"

"I did not know it, sir," said Norton flus.h.i.+ng a little.

"I thought you probably did not know it," said Mr. Wharncliffe quietly.

"You did not know that many a time, when the people of the Jews were following G.o.d, one man of them could chase a thousand?"

"No, sir."

"Who remembers such a case?"

Norton p.r.i.c.ked up his ears and listened; for the members of the cla.s.s spoke out and gave instance after instance, till the teacher stopped them for want of time to hear more. The lesson went on. The carrying away of Daniel and his companions was told of, and "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans" was explained. Gradually the question came round to Matilda again. Why Daniel and the other three n.o.ble young Jews would not eat of the king's meat?

Matilda could not guess.

"You remember that the Jews, as the Lord's people, were required to keep themselves ceremonially _clean_, as it was called. If they eat certain things or touched certain other things, they were not allowed to go into the temple to wors.h.i.+p, until at least that day was ended and they had washed themselves and changed their clothes. Sometimes many more days than one must pa.s.s before they could be 'clean' again, in that sense. This was ceremony, but it served to teach and remind them of something that was not ceremony, but deep inward truth. What?"

Mr. Wharncliffe abruptly stopped with the question, and a tall boy at one end of the cla.s.s answered him.

"People must keep themselves from what is not good."

"The people of G.o.d must keep themselves from every thing that is not pure, in word, thought, and deed. And how if they fail sometimes, Joanna, and get soiled by falling into some temptation? what must they do?"

"Get washed."

"What shall they wash in, when it is the heart and conscience that must be made clean?"

"The blood of Christ."

"How will that make us clean?"

There was hesitation in the cla.s.s; then as Mr. Wharncliffe's eye came to her and rested slightly, Matilda could not help speaking.

"Because it was shed for our sins, and it takes them all away."

"_How_ shall we wash in it then?" the teacher asked, still looking at Matilda.

"If we trust him?"--she began.

"To do what?"

"To forgive,--and to take away our wrong feelings."

"For his blood's sake!" said the teacher. "'They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' And as the sacrifices of old time were a sort of picture and token of the pouring out of that blood; so the outward cleanness about which the Jews had to be so particular was a sort of sign and token of the pure heart-cleanness which every one must have who follows the Lord Jesus.

"And so we come back to Daniel. If he eat the food sent from the king's table he would be certain to touch and eat now and then something which would be, for him, ceremonially unclean. More than that. Often the king's meat was prepared from part of an animal which had been sacrificed to an idol; to eat of the sacrifice was part of the wors.h.i.+p of the idol; and so Daniel and his fellows might have been thought to share in that wors.h.i.+p."

"But it wouldn't have been true," said a boy in the cla.s.s.

"What would not have been true?"

"He would not have been wors.h.i.+pping the idol. He didn't mean it."

"So you think he might just as well have eaten the idol's meat? not meaning any thing."

"It wouldn't have been service of the idol."

"What would it have been?"

"Why, nothing at all. I don't see as he would have done no harm."

"What harm would it have been, or what harm would it have done, if Daniel had _really_ joined in the wors.h.i.+p of Nebuchadnezzar's idol?"

"He would have displeased G.o.d," said one.

"I guess G.o.d would have punished him," said another.

"He would not have been G.o.d's child any longer," said Matilda.