And the aged disciple looked for no better acknowledgment.
Many would have thought it a weary life, plodding through the streets early and late, winter and summer, and sitting at his desk from morning till evening, bounded and hemmed in, as it were, by the gloomy walls of the surrounding buildings, which shut out alike both air and sunshine. But it never seemed weary to Peter Marshall. He was always happy—always busy in the service of his earthly employer, but never forgetting that he had also a Master in heaven.
Many an earnest and believing prayer went up from that dark narrow office, to the celestial city, and many a loving answer came quickly down. Many a warning word was uttered there which it pleased the Lord to bless. And many a good seed sown which, although apparently lost for a season, bore fruit in after years to the glory of God.
There it was that a young clerk—he was only a youth then—with no mother, and no friend, save Marshall, to lead him in the right way, first found Christ. And there it was that the same boy, grown up to be a Christian man, came years afterwards from a distant land to tell him, with tears of thankfulness, all that the Lord had done for his soul since then. It was no wonder that the dull city office seemed so bright to Peter Marshall.
Let us listen to him for a moment as he sits with clasped hands and bowed head where Mr. Heighington had left him when he went out just now, after having given him the desired permission to increase Matthew Reardon's wages. He is sending up one of his telegrams to the heavenly city:
"Dear Lord Jesus, Thou knowest how I love him. Oh, do Thou love him also, and draw him to Thyself, in Thine own good time, as Thou alone canst be merciful; also to that poor man, Matthew Reardon, and put it into my heart what I shall say when I go and see him to-night, as I am minded to do. I am getting an old man now, Lord, as Thou well knowest, and the words don't come as readily as they ought, and as they did once."
[CHAPTER VI.]
THE KING'S MESSENGER.
TIRED as he was, the old clerk determined to carry the good news to Matthew Reardon as he went home.
"Poor fellow!" thought he. "Who knows but what it may cheer him up a bit."