Of no account

by Ruth Lamb

He thought of the two men whose pleasant words and manners had left a favourable impression, along with the printed handbill. He remembered words uttered by that old workman at Rutherford's, who had long been a professed follower of the Lord Jesus, and who was one of the happiest men he knew. This individual had said that for a long time he had walked one way and his wife the other, but that now they were agreed, and he thanked God for it. It was a happy day for him, he said, when a neighbour had persuaded the wife to go to a Bible class with her.

"I'd asked her many a time, but she wouldn't go for me. The neighbour had sat up o' nights with our lad when he was ill, and she couldn't say her nay. She went that once to please her, and she has gone with me ever since. I was going to say to please herself, but she wants to serve One that's higher now, and please Him."

Adam had felt constrained to ask whether she did her household work as well as before, and the old man had replied, with moistening eyes, that she did everything better for being a disciple of Jesus.

"We've no little ones now, but there are the lads and me. She has work enough, but when she wants to go to a meeting in daytime she gets up sooner in the morning, and if it's at night, we all go together."

It was plain to Adam that there must be something in religion, and that there were real and sham Christians. Some of the old workman's words stuck to his memory.

"Thou'rt diligent in business, Adam, always. I wish I could see thee happy in serving the Lord, too. There's naught like it for lightening labour and brightening life."

Then there was Mr. Drummond. He professed to be a religious man. What difference did this make in him as a manager?

Adam had worked at Rutherford's from his boyhood; but while he respected his employers for fair dealing, and knew what sort of work they sent out, he had known little of them, as man to man. "Our Mr. John" had been the most popular of all, for he had a very winning way with him. Many a time a joke of his had made the whole smithy ring with laughter.

He had been kind, too, in sending money help to needy widows of improvident workmen, and had done many a kindness in a quiet, unpretending way. He would be very much missed, would Mr. John, and he would be welcomed back with open arms when he returned.

But never had one of the great Rutherfords been known to take a personal interest in a man's eternal welfare, or spoken to him in the way that Mr. Drummond had done that afternoon. And it seemed religion was at the bottom of that. The manager was not ashamed to say so, or to own that it had given a joy and brightness to his life that neither worldly success nor position had been able to do.