Were it not for our past experience that flowers must fade to make way for fruit, how sad would be the sight of the fading blossoms on a tree—the petals strewed in the dust, their brilliant beauty departed! But we know that what is more precious is left behind; that on the bough remains the green germ of the fruit which shall renew the beauty of the tree, and give to it a value beyond what it possessed in the smiling days of spring. So see we faith in trial. Outward advantages may be taken away, sweet hopes may fall and wither, but if the fruit-tree be thriving and deep-rooted, harvest glory is yet to come. Job—stripped of property, children, health—might lament the day of his birth, and believe that his season of active usefulness was departed for ever; but through his very trials and losses he passed to greater glory and joy, and has become a fruitful source of blessing to the Church of God through many generations.
CHAPTER XIII.
A PROMISE.
“I am sure that Mr. Eardley was thinking of Mr. Arthur Madden this evening when he spoke of active labourers for God being smitten down by sickness,” observed Rebekah Holdich to her husband, after the little congregation had dispersed from the cottage.
“Mr. Arthur—I hope there’s nothing the matter with him!” said Holdich, with a look of concern on his manly countenance. “The last news was that he had been ordained at Jerusalem.”
“But I grieve to say that worse tidings came this morning to Mr. Eardley in a letter from Mr. Arthur’s youngest sister, who has been nursing him in a dangerous illness. The doctors say that the climate does not agree with his health; he was ordered to England directly—he and his sister were to start by the very next steamer.”