“The pastor knows all about that, my boy,” observed Mr Linacre.
“Yes, I do,” said the pastor. “I know that you suffered worse things there than here; and I know that things worse than either are at present endured by our brethren in Piedmont. You have a warm house over your heads; and you live in sunshine and plenty. They are driven from their villages, with fire and sword—forced to shelter among the snow-drifts, and pent up in caves till they rush out starving, to implore mercy of their scoffing persecutors. Could you bear this, children?”
“They suffer these things for their religion,” observed Oliver. “They feel that they are martyrs.”
“Do you think there is comfort in that thought,—in the pride of martyrdom,—to the son who sees his aged parents perish by the wayside,—to the mother whose infant is dashed against the rock before her eyes?”
“How do they bear it all, then?”
“They keep one another in mind that it is God’s will, my dears; and that obedient children can, if they try, bear all that God sees fit to lay upon them. So they praise His name with a strong heart, though their voices be weak. Morning and night, those mountains echo with hymns; though death, in one form or another, is about the sufferers on every side.
“My dear,” said Mr Linacre, “let us make no more complaints about the Redfurns. I am ashamed, when I think of our brethren abroad, that we ever let Stephen and Roger put us up to anger. You will see no more tears here, sir, I hope.”
“Mildred will not quite promise that,” said the pastor, smiling kindly on the little girl. “Make no promises, my dear, that a little girl like you may be tempted to break. Only try to forgive all people who tease and injure you; and remember that nothing more ever happens than God permits,—though He does not yet see fit to let us know why.”
“I would only just ask this, sir,” said Mr Linacre. “Is there anything going forward just now which particularly encourages our enemies to attack us?”
“The parliament have a committee sitting at Lincoln, at present; and the king’s cause seems to be low in these parts. We are thus at the mercy of such as choose to consider us king’s men: but there is a higher and truer mercy always about us.”