"Will such times ever come again?" asked Willy.
"The future, my boy, is known only to God—our duties lie in the present. May the Almighty give us grace, both now and always, to deeply prize His sacred Word, and whether in prosperity or in adversity, through good report or evil report, to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering!"
[CHAPTER X.]
THE INVALID.
"How beautiful is constancy under intense suffering!" observed Mrs. Gore. "And Christianity has its heroes still! I believe," added she, glancing at the invalid on the sofa, "that when the trial of sickness and pain is borne with meekness, cheerfulness, and perfect resignation, God beholds the martyr's spirit in His servant, and prepares the martyr's crown!"
"It would be a comfort to think that," said poor Percy, and sighed.
"I knew a poor woman," resumed Mrs. Gore, "the wife of a gamekeeper in B— shire. For months, I believe years, an agonising malady had been gradually drawing her towards the grave. Her cottage was a solitary one; no one lived very near; her husband went to his work early in the morning—and lonely, very lonely must her days often have been, when pain was the only companion left with her. But religion cheered her couch of suffering, and her feeble voice would be raised in hymns to Him who was her hope and her salvation. I shall not soon forget one occasion, when I was driving her home to her cottage, after a visit to a doctor who had put her to exquisite pain. The glorious sun was setting in the west; I pointed it out to the suffering woman, and reminded her of the lines in which a dying Christian is compared to the declining orb of day—"
"'And when he draws nearer to finish his race,
Like a fine setting-sun, he grows richer in grace,
And gives a sure hope at the end of his days
Of rising in brighter array!'"
"The expression of pain on the invalid's face was exchanged for a look of pleasure and peace—she could do more than suffer and be still, she could suffer and rejoice. And was not this woman Christian heroine?"