But his mother had no wish that the conversation should be pursued in that direction, so she said, “Yes, Frank, it is his business to do God’s work in the world, but no more than it is yours and mine, in one sense.”
“Mine!” echoed Frank, with a whistle of astonishment, which Jem echoed.
“Yours, surely, my dear boy, and yours, Jem; and your responsibility is not lessened by the fact that you may be conscious that you are refusing that personal consecration which alone can fit you for God’s service, or make such service acceptable.”
There was nothing answered to this, and Mrs Inglis added, “And being consecrated to God’s service, we do His work well, when we do well the duty he has appointed us, however humble it may be.”
“But to come back to Hobab, mamma,” said Jem, in a little while. “After all, do you really think it was a desire to do God’s work in helping the people that made him go with them, if he did go? Perhaps he thought of the fighting and the possible adventures, as Frank says.”
“We have no means of knowing, except that it does not seem to have been so much with the thought of his being a protector, that Moses asked him, as of his being a guide. ‘Thou mayest be to us instead of eyes,’ said he.”
“Yes,” said Jem, hesitatingly, “I suppose so; but it must have been something to him to think of leading such a host.”
“But he would not have led the host,” said David. “Yet it must have been a grand thing to follow such a leader as Moses.”
“Aunt Mary,” said Frank, “if there is something for us all to do in the world, as you say, I, for one, would much rather think of it as a place to fight in than to work in.”
“The same here,” said Jem.