[CHAPTER XVIII.]
RE-UNITED YET SEPARATE.
"THAT'S a clever young woman," said Mrs. Livesey, when the door had closed behind Sarah Evans.
"Aye, and a good one, too. She's shown what sort a stuff she's made of, this last month. Coming all on a sudden into a strange house and amongst five children, and expecting only to stop two or three days. It's just wonderful how she's managed with the money too, and made things so comfortable," replied Adam.
He wanted to say more, and to tell what lessons the little ones had learned from the lips of the young housekeeper. Most of all, he longed to tell of that new life, born within himself, which had given him an abiding sense of peace, and made him feel rich, in comparison with which Margaret's sense of wealth in her unexpected legacy, was as nothing.
She had found it very easy to tell of what had come to her through her earthly parent's will, but Adam found it very difficult to speak about the heavenly inheritance to which he could now lay claim through the loving will of his God and Father in Christ Jesus.
Anybody could understand Margaret's good news, and what the dead mother had left to her daughter. But only one who had been taught by the Holy Spirit could enter into the present happiness, or comprehend the eternal riches of another who has been born again, who, by virtue of this new birth, has learned to cry, "Abba Father!" and to say with heartfelt joy, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup"; "I have a goodly heritage."
When the children went to rest, the young ones under Sarah Evans' guidance, the elder a little later, the father had bidden them in a whisper not to forget their prayers. Another night, mother would be settled and able to attend to them.
Adam was not cowardly in refraining from speech about these new and better ways before his wife. He wanted her to know of everything that had taken place during her absence. But he felt that in speaking of what God had done for his soul, and of the new habits he had striven to bring into the little household, he must use great caution and patience.
Margaret had always set herself determinedly against religious ordinances and people who professed to be religious. The practices and conversation of such she usually styled "cant," the individuals, "hypocrites," with a very great stress on the last syllable. She had ever persisted in turning her eyes upon two or three unmistakable "shams," and talking of them as if they were a fair sample of those who profess and call themselves Christians, and she rejoiced that she was not one of that sort.