She led the morning worship as usual, and she prayed in calm resignation that she might be enabled to submit her will with cheerfulness to the will of God; and she praised the loving Saviour for his gracious assurance, in his invitation to the little children, that he would receive them. To Him in death, as she believed, she now committed them; but the thought, that she had not yet fully done her part, sunk upon her conscience; and giving the baby into the charge of the elder ones, she bade them pray that God would guide her way while she went in search of food to keep them all alive. But she had overtasked her powers, and as she met the current of fresh, cold air, her head swam, her steps tottered, and she fell as she crossed the threshold. And it was a shriek of ecstasy such as she little thought her famishing bairns could have raised, such as for many a day, many a week had never fallen on her ears that roused her again to consciousness. She rose, and supporting herself by the wall, re-entered the room. And oh, what a sight met her eyes, there was the grey cat with a large fish in its mouth upon the children’s bed. He who had formerly fed his prophet by the ravens, had now in this affecting providence shown his care of them.[6] The fish was brought as one of the boys suggested, from an old yare, or fish trap at the head of the lake. Hunger had overcome the instinctive dislike of the cat to water, and the instinct which leads the species to play with its prey before despatching it, had thus been overruled for the sustenance of his people, by him “who ordereth all things.”
The cat dropped the fish between the children, and purring and rubbing herself against them, jumped down, and made her way through the opened door. She returned with a second supply, and for three days the family were kept alive in this manner. If Margaret’s faith had been firm and unwavering before, we need not wonder that now all care for the future seemed taken from her heart. God had begun to restore, he would not mock her hopes; and the desire of life and the thought of better, no not better (for never had she lived so near her God), but brighter days revived. It was at this time that the deputation from the Destitution Committee arrived in Argyleshire. They visited the glen, and awarded to Margaret, in common with about 120 of the most destitute families, an allowance of meal, sufficient for the support of herself and her family for six weeks.
And now we would, ere we part, say a few last words to the reader. Have you as you read felt moved by the tale of suffering, such as perhaps you never even imagined before? Then if you have, let the feeling work; for it has been well said, “When such relations in real life are listened to, without any efforts for the relief of the sufferer, the emotion is gradually weakened;” and that moral condition, “so abhorrent to our fellow creatures, so alien from the Divine Nature, is produced, which we call selfishness and hardness of heart.” And we might appeal even to this very selfishness; for that which is the case of our brethren now, may ere long be our own. We trust that through the sparing mercy of our God, and his blessing on our harvests, sought by our humiliation through the merits of the Redeemer, it may be averted from us. But “as” in such a case, should it ever be your own, “ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them.” “To-day harden not your hearts.”
The Highlander too has a peculiar claim on our bounty, for he has ever been ready to minister to the wants of the stranger and the traveller. During a tour of some weeks among the mountains and the glens, we very frequently closed an evening ramble by a visit to their cottages. And never in one single instance, though we were a party of five, were we allowed to depart without partaking of their hospitality; nor would they receive remuneration in return. Their hospitality they can no longer offer, their meal chest is empty, their cow has long been gone, and is it not the time for us to render back what we so freely received? But they have a higher claim. It is written,—“Do good unto all men, specially unto them that are of the household of faith,” and such are they.
“And oh, may we all have grace so to deny ourselves that we may be enabled to follow the example of His compassion, Who, ‘though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor.’ And Who, though content for our sakes to endure himself the pinching pains of hunger and want, yet suffered not the multitudes to go hungry away.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Caillian, the gude wife.
[2] Second Statement of the Destitution Committee.
[3] “In many of the islands the pigs, being left without food, have literally disappeared, and the fowls, no longer fed at home, have wandered, and eagles, ravens, and carrion crows have fallen on them and devoured them.”—Second Report.
[4] “Cast thy burden upon the Lord;” and it may be some man shall say, How? Roll it on him with the two hands of faith and prayer.—Leighton.