Hamil passed his hand across his eyes as he murmured, "Would I were now what I was then!"
"You may be more, much more than you were then," cried Miriam. "You and I were but as young untried recruits, who knew little of what might be before us, but who were ready boldly to face an enemy, whenever one might attack us. Now, you are as one bearing the burden and heat of the day, you know your enemy—"
"A great deal too well," interrupted Hamil; "he has not only attacked, but has got the better of me at last."
"Only for a time!" cried Miriam, eagerly. "Never despair, the struggle is not yet over! You were, as one may say, a straggler from the ranks, you were not on your guard, the enemy took you at disadvantage. He struck you down for a moment, but you are up and at him again, you won't give in, you'll fight to the end. Is it not written in the Bible, 'Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you?' * Wrestle against temptation, and overcome it, dear brother, in the name and in the strength of the Lord!"
* James iv. 7.
Miriam's eyes sparkled as she spoke, and, as Hamil looked on that bright animated face raised so earnestly to his own, the voice of his only sister roused his spirit like the call of a trumpet sounding to arms.
"Ah! Miriam," cried the young soldier, "if I had you always beside me to keep me up to the mark, I think that something might be made of me yet. Come what may, you are always ready to rush to the rescue. It's the old story of the viper again; I wish that you could stamp your foot upon my enemy, intemperance, as you did on the venomous reptile."
"You must do that for yourself, or rather you must ask God to do it for you, Hamil, struggling hard yourself all the time. There is such comfort in that text which you and I learned together years ago; 'God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.'" *
* 1 Cor. x. 13.
"Victory over sin is certainly worth a struggle," said Hamil.