"My friend has a great many horses, and just now is in want of a careful lad to look after some of them, and when I told him how fond you were of the creatures, he agreed to take you at once, and to pay you good wages, if you suited him. But he is particular, Eric, very particular, as most good Methodists are. I have told him the story of your life, and I am sure he will be kind to you; but still, I could see he would like you to declare yourself a Methodist and join his class meeting."
Eric shook his head.
"I could not do that at once," he said.
"Don't you think you would like Methodists?" asked Sister Martin, in some surprise.
"I am not sure; I have not seen any one but you, and I have not thought of you as a Methodist. You have been as my own mother to me. I could not expect everybody to be like you, and so I want to see first what the common sort of Methodists are. I have thought about it since you have been gone, for one of the men who came to work on the ship here said he was a Methodist. He did not seem to be ashamed of the name, as people are in England. But though he said this, he shirked his work, I noticed, whenever he could, and wanted me to help him more than I did anybody else."
"And you think he may be a common sort of Methodist?" said his friend, with a smile.
"I don't know; but that is not the way my mother taught me to love and serve God. And so I should not like to call myself by a name I should be ashamed of afterwards. You see, this is something that is closer to me than anything else. I promised the landlord of The Magpie not to speak about God to anybody; but I also told him He was more to me than anything else in the world, and so I should still think of Him and pray to Him."
"But, my dear Eric, my friend would not even want you not to speak of God. Indeed, he would want you at the class meeting to do so. Methodists are a society of people who have banded themselves together to serve God and hold themselves aloof from the world that lieth in wickedness."
"Oh yes, I heard all that from the Methodist who was working here; but it seemed to me that laziness was the thing he ought to avoid, but being a Methodist didn't seem to make much difference. I dare say he would have been lazy anywhere."
"I daresay he would," answered Sister Martin; "and it may be the man is trying to overcome this fault just because he is a Methodist; but you do not see these efforts he is making—you only see the failures. You must not expect Methodists or any other set of people to be perfect. The very fact that they band themselves together for mutual help and encouragement is a confession that they are not, but are trying to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ.