We were all sorry for Martha's trial, for such it was, but thankful that she never for a moment wavered in her resolution. She served us well for some years more, and then became the wife of a man like-minded with herself, and able to maintain her in comfort.
After sixteen years of married life, Martha's husband volunteered this testimony: "She has been a good wife and a good mother. She has brought up her children in the fear of the Lord, both by precept and practice, and has been a real help to me in everything. She has often told me about giving up the man she was to have married, but she always says, 'I thought it was a trouble at the time, though it was all for the best. It would have been no use to ask God's guidance, and then take one's own way.'"
A pleasant testimony this, after many days. Truly, "A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."
[AS A LITTLE CHILD.]
A MOTHER and a little child of six years were together one afternoon, the former busily plying her needle, the latter building a wonderful castle with a box of jointed bricks. They were almost constant companions, for all the elders of the flock were at school, whilst Nellie was still her mother's pupil. A bright, merry, intelligent young creature was the little scholar. She needed neither coaxing nor driving; but loved to learn as the mother loved to teach.
As she laboured away at her building on that summer afternoon, the small architect reminded one of a bird by her ceaseless motion. She flitted about, piling brick upon brick; sometimes talking, sometimes singing, as she drew back now and again to observe the effect of her work.
And, childlike, she chattered for a time, hardly noticing how brief were her mother's answers, or that, very often, there was no reply at all to her many questions. But this state of things was so contrary to custom that it attracted Nellie's attention, and, turning towards her mother, she saw that her hands were lying idle in her lap, and that her eyes were filling with tears.
In a moment the bricks were on the ground and the castle a mere wreck. The child darted to her mother, exclaiming, "Mamma, mamma! What is the matter? Are you ill? Do tell me what you are crying for?" And at the same time, she softly wiped the tear from Mrs. Matthews' cheek, and followed this act by a loving kiss.