"We parted, and I saw no more of my companion of the voyage. I can only hope that our conversation did not prove altogether fruitless. I repeat it, that some one else may be stirred to use more diligently the many means of glace which have been opened to us by the goodness and love of Him 'who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.'"
Salvation is of God, and of God alone. But hear His own word: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
[WIDOW HENDERSON;
OR, THE REBELLIOUS HEART SUBDUED.]
IN our little country town, there was not a prettier-looking home than that in which Widow Henderson lived. She and her orphan child dwelt in a charming cottage, which was not only picturesque enough for sketching, but also thoroughly comfortable inside, which is not always the case with cottages which look well on paper.
Outside, the porch and walls were hidden by a mass of climbing plants. Roses bloomed, woodbine scented the air, the passion-flower spread its curious petals; and in winter, when all these were gone, the hale ivy clung still, all green and flourishing, and saved the pretty cottage from looking ragged and bare. There was a very sweet union of nature and art outside Widow Henderson's cottage, for with all its wild beauty everything was in good order.
Poor thing! She was very young, only seven and twenty; yet that little bright-eyed lass of eight years old called her "mother." All the people in the village pitied her, and made a pet of orphan Effie, though the mother was a stranger from a far-away town and county. But Frank Henderson, her father, had been born and brought up at Deerhurst, and when he first talked about going to sea, it was made a trouble of by the whole parish. The people said it was like taking a ray of sunshine from the place, because, from a child, Frank had always been the willing helper of all who needed a helping hand, and he had a kind word and a cheerful smile for everybody.
Years sped on though, and Deerhurst folk grew proud of the smart young sailor who, at long intervals, enlivened their firesides with his wonderful tales of far-away lands, and of the strange things he saw there.
"Frank was not," they said, "the lad to go through the world with his eyes shut."