No wonder, after all the events of that day, that Priscilla Warner lay down to rest with a song of praise in her heart for all the undeserved mercies received from the loving hand of their Father in heaven.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
OLD FRIENDS.
"Jesus, still lead on,
Till our rest be won;
Heavenly Leader, still direct us,
Still support, console, protect us,
Till we safely stand
In our Fatherland."
SOME years have passed since Austin Warner and his fair bride set off for China, and since Lewis had returned from Sydney. And ere we part we will take a glance at our old friends.
Priscilla Warner has changed her name, and for some time has been Priscilla Lascelles, and can no longer, she smilingly declares, be called "only a girl," for she is a matronly-looking person, and the mother of two little boys. Dr. Lascelles has left the navy, and is now a hard-working, well-employed medical man in Manchester. He and his wife are well known and beloved in the houses of the poor. Priscilla's talents are by no means hidden in a napkin, and more than one young man of limited means has reason to bless the doctor's kind wife, who willingly devotes a spare hour to helping them in their mathematical studies, and by her thoughtful actions and loving words seeks to turn them from darkness and lead them into the kingdom of God.
There is no fear, her brother Lewis says, that her boys will ever have to complain of the dulness of the evenings in their home, for father and mother alike do all they can to brighten the after-dinner hours for the young ones. The blessing of God, that "maketh rich and bringeth no sorrow with it," rests on that happy home, and Harry often tells his wife that now, as in olden days, God has intrusted to her a work which angels might envy.
At the Grove there is a small home-party now—only the professor and his bonnie Ruth, as he calls her, who has ably filled her sister's place since her departure. Ruth's ambition of being a soul-gatherer is being quietly but surely fulfilled. God is using her hand to gather in one by one precious souls to his garner. She has not Priscilla's wonderful talents, but she is well read and well informed, able to enjoy the conversation of her father and friends on any subject, and take part in it intelligently. But she finds her greatest pleasure in the service of the King of kings, in whose home harvest-field she loves to labour. Hers is no idle hand. Jean M'Ivor and she go hand in hand in helping on every good work.
Then Lewis, now a professor in a college in the north of England, and a married man, comes often to the Grove to see his old father.
And Archie, who resides in London, and is getting on well, also goes from time to time to see the inmates of the Grove.