“Why, I don’t suppose they are all dull. I am sure they are not,” said Effie, gravely.
“Well, I find them so,” said Christie. “Do you mind the book that Andrew Graham brought to my father—the one, you know, that he said his mother was never weary of reading? And my father liked it too—and my aunt; though I don’t really think she liked it so much. Well, I tried, on two different Sabbaths, to read it. I thought I would try and find out what was wonderful about it. But I couldna. It seemed to me just like all the rest of the books. Did you like it, Effie?”
“I didna read it. It was sent home too soon. But, Christie, you are but a little girl. It’s no’ to be supposed that you could understand all father can, or that you should like all that he likes. And besides,” she added, after a pause, “I suppose God’s people are different from other people. They have something that others have not—a power to understand and enjoy what is hidden from the rest of the world.”
Christie looked at her sister with undisguised astonishment.
“What do you mean, Effie?” she asked.
“I don’t know that I can make it quite clear to you. But don’t you mind how we smiled at wee Willie for wanting to give his bonny picture-book to Mrs Grey’s blind Allie? It was a treasure to him; but to the poor wee blind lassie it was no better than an old copybook would have been. And don’t you mind that David prays: ‘Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law’? That must mean something. I am afraid most of those who read God’s Word fail to see ‘wondrous things’ in it.”
Effie’s eyes grew moist and wistful as they followed the quivering shadows of the leaves overhead; and Christie watched her silently for a while.
“But, Effie,” she said, at last, “there are parts of the Bible that everybody likes to read. And, besides, all the people that go to the kirk and listen as though they took pleasure in it are not God’s people—nor all those who read dull books, either.”
Effie shook her head.
“I suppose they take delight in listening to what the preacher says, just as they would take pleasure in hearing a good address on any subject. But the Word is not food and medicine and comfort to the like of them, as old Mrs Grey says it is to her. And we don’t see them taking God’s Word as their guide and their law in all things, as God’s people do. It is not because they love it that they read and listen to it. There is a great difference.”