VII.
Drawn Aside.
THE subject of the preceding conversation had been so exceedingly solemn that even little Elsie had a grave look of awe on her round rosy face, though she could understand but little of the great mysteries of which her mother had been speaking. Elsie could only gather that a type was like a picture of something much greater and more wondrous than itself, and said in her simple, childish way, “Is not a type like your very tiny photo, mamma, so little that we could not make out that there was any picture at all till we held it up to the light, and then we could see the Queen’s great palace quite plain?”
“Elsie has given us a type of a type!” cried Lucius, clapping his little sister on the shoulder.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Agnes.
Lucius was puzzled to explain his own meaning, which was perhaps not very clear to himself, so his mother came to his help.
“Elsie’s very minute photograph is not a bad illustration of what Bible types are,” remarked Mrs. Temple. “They look small, and might almost escape notice, until the eye of faith sees them in the clear light of God’s Word, and then what seemed little more than a speck, may be found to be a likeness of something grander far than a royal palace.”
“It would be interesting to find out some other Bible types,” observed Agnes.
“I was just going to propose that while I attend afternoon service, you should all occupy the time of my absence in each finding a type, which we can talk over in the evening,” said Mrs. Temple.
“I should like that!” cried Lucius; “I am glad of anything to make the afternoon less dull; for I know that as it is damp to-day we shall all have to keep within bounds,” he added, Agnes having just begun a fit of coughing.