“Dear lad,” he said, “pray the Lord to bring her to Himself. That’s safe to be His will, for He willeth not the death of a sinner. But as to giving her to thee, if I were thou, Tom, I’d leave that with Him. Meantime, thy way’s plain. ‘Be ye not unequally yoked together.’ The command’s clear as daylight. Never get a clog to thy soul. Thou canst live without Jenny Lavender; but couldst thou live without Jesus Christ?”
Tom shook his head, without speaking.
“To tell truth, Tom, I’m not sorry she’s going away. Maybe the Lord’s sending her hence, either to open her eyes and send her back weary and cloyed with the world she’s going into so gaily now, or else to open thine, and show thee plain, stripped of outside glitter, the real thing she is, that thou mayest see what a sorry wife she would make to a Christian man. No, I’m not sorry. And unless I mistake greatly, Tom, the time’s coming when thou shalt not be sorry neither. In the meantime, ‘tarry thou the Lord’s leisure.’ If He be the chief object of thy desire, thy desire is safe to be fulfilled. ‘This is the will of God, even our sanctification.’”
They turned to the left at the top of the hill, and went a few yards along the lane, to a little cottage embowered in ivy, which was Anthony’s home.
“Wilt thou come in, Tom, lad?”
“No, Uncle, I thank you. You’ve opened my eyes, but it’s made ’em smart a bit too much to face the light as yet. I’ll take a sharp trudge over the moor, and battle it out with myself.”
“Take the Lord with thee, lad. Satan’ll have thee down if thou doesn’t. He’s strong and full o’ wiles, and if he can’t conquer thee in his black robe, he’ll put on a white one. There’s no harm in thy saying to the Lord, ‘Lord, Thou knowest that I love Jenny Lavender’; but take care that it does not come before, ‘Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.’ Maybe He’s putting the same question to thee to-night, that He did to Peter at the lake-side.”
“Ay, ay, Uncle. I’ll not forget. God bless thee!”
Tom wrung old Anthony’s hand, and turned away.
One moment the old man paused before he went in.