Lewie laughed a little incredulous laugh, and said, as he turned off to go to his home—
"Well, now, suppose you study out a reason for your own ill-luck."
"I intend to," was the reply.
A week later, he said—
"Lewie, it is all clear to me now. I had just made up my mind to be a merchant. I don't think I ever prayed at all on that point, but I was so presumptuous as to ask God to bless me in a decision which I had made without consulting Him. I begin now to think that this constant thwarting of my plans means something."
"So you've been studying up the case as I advised," said Lewie, with a slight sneer, which Herbert did not mind. He was used to Lewie. They did not think and feel alike upon religious subjects, but they always spoke freely to each other.
Lewie went regularly to church and Bible class (the remaining members of the old class having been transferred to Dr. Myers's class, while Mrs. McNair took charge of the younger scholars), the old motto still hung in a conspicuous place in his room, and he assured himself whenever he looked at it that he was following, even closer than many who bore the name of Christian. Did he call himself a Christian? We will see what he thought about it.
Herbert had returned home to find Westville in the midst of the spiritual awakening of which we have already written something. Mr. Earle had the rare faculty of understanding how to set people to work, and in a quiet, unostentatious way Herbert was soon earnestly engaged in the work of winning souls for Christ. It was through him that Nick Turner was led to place himself within reach of the means of grace. It was he who brought Willy and Helen Knapp to the children's meeting, and, too, it was he who rejoiced with Henry Trafton when his young sister Alice gave her heart to Christ, and his father owned Him as his Saviour. And after Duncan's conversion, a prayer-meeting was started among the boys at the seminary, and here Herbert found work. In the three years that had gone by since he gave his heart to Christ, he had tried to do his Master service as he found opportunity, but it seemed that he had never found so grand an opening for labour as now, and never before had his heart been so full of love for souls.
Mr. Earle watched him with gladness, yet with anxiety. He felt that by his providence God was calling Herbert to devote himself entirely to the work of spreading the gospel, and he waited longingly for the time when the Spirit should show the boy the meaning of those things that puzzled him now.
But to go back to what we were saying about Lewie Amesbury's thoughts, as to whether he might call himself a Christian or not. One evening, after many had spoken, old Christians out of their rich experience, and young converts out of hearts all aglow with love, Mr. Earle said—