It was Sunday afternoon. Most of the _Dolphin's_ passengers were in their
own state-rooms enjoying the Sabbath rest, after the fatigue of the
sight-seeing of the past week, but Captain Raymond sat on the deck with
Neddie on his knee and the three girls grouped about him. The father and
daughters had each a Bible, for even little Elsie could read fluently and
had been given one of her own, which she valued highly.
"Papa," she said, "you know you bade each of us to have a verse to recite
to you to-day. May I say mine now?"
"Yes; we will begin with the youngest to-day," he replied.
"But that's I, papa; your Neddie boy!" exclaimed the little fellow on his
knee.
"Why, yes, to be sure! But I hardly expected him to have one," the captain
returned, with a fatherly smile down into the dear little face upturned to
his. "Let me hear it, son?"
"It's only a very little one, papa: 'The Son of man hath power on earth to
forgive sins.'"
"A very sweet verse. Does my little son know who said these words?"
"Grandma said they were Jesus' words. She taught me the verse."
"Yes, it was Jesus our Saviour who said it; and do you know whom he meant
by the Son of man?"
"Grandma said it was himself, and that he can forgive all our sins and
take away the love of sinning and make us truly good, really holy."
"That is true, a blessed truth; and to him alone, to Jesus who was God and
man both, we must go to get our sins forgiven, and be taught to love
holiness; that holiness without which no man can see the Lord."
"Now mine, papa," said Elsie: "'He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life.' Doesn't that mean that to believe on Jesus will take us
to heaven at last--when we die?"
"Yes; and as soon as we really and truly believe on him--trust and love
him, giving ourselves to him and taking him for our Saviour--he gives us a
life that will last forever, so that we will always be his in this world
and in the next, and dying will be but going home to our Father's house on
high, to be forever there with the Lord, and free from sin and suffering
and death."
"Never any more naughtiness, and never any more pain or sickness," said
Elsie thoughtfully. "Oh, how delightful that will be!"
"Yes, and to be with Jesus and like him," said Grace softly. "This is my
verse: 'We love him because he first loved us.'"
"Oh, what love it was!" exclaimed her father. "'Beloved, let us love one
another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God. He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.'"
"I have the next three verses, papa," said Lucilla: "'In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also
to love one another.'"
"Yes," said her father; "if we would be followers of Christ, he must be
our example; he who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who,
when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened
not; but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who his own
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."
"What does that mean?" asked little Ned.
"That the dear Lord Jesus suffered in our stead; taking the punishment due
to us for our sins, the punishment we deserved, and letting us have the
life bought with his righteousness and his blood."
"What is righteousness, papa?" asked the little fellow.
"Holiness, goodness. Jesus was perfectly holy, and those who truly love
him will be ever trying to be like him; will go from strength to strength
till everyone of them in Zion appears before God. That is, till they get
to heaven; and there they will be so like Jesus that they will never sin
any more."
"And what does that other part, 'by whose stripes ye are healed,' mean,
papa?" asked Elsie.
"That Jesus suffered for the sins of his people (there was no sin of his
own for him to suffer for), and that because he bore the punishment in
their stead they will not have to bear it, and will be delivered from the
love of it; that is the healing--the being made well of that disease--the
love of sinning, the vile nature that we are all born with, because our
first parents disobeyed God there in the garden of Eden."
"God teaches his people to hate sin and try bard--asking help of him--to
forsake it and be always good, doing just what is right; doesn't he,
papa? That's what grandma says."
"Yes, dear child, it is what God teaches us in his Word--the Holy Bible."
"And he will send his Holy Spirit to help us--if we ask him to?"
"Yes."
"But how can we know it, papa? we can't see him."
"No, daughter, but we may know it by the help he gives us, and others will
recognize the fact by the fruit of the Spirit seen in our lives. Lucilla,
can you tell me what is the fruit of the Spirit?"
"Yes, sir; the Bible says 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
"Yes; and 'against such there is no law.' Jesus has kept the law perfectly
in their stead, and his righteousness being imputed to them, they are
treated as if they had never broken the law--never sinned--but had been
always holy and obedient to all the commands of God, as he was."
Elsie was looking very thoughtful. "I think I understand it now, papa,"
she said. "Jesus has kept God's law in our stead, and borne the punishment
for our breaking it, and gives his goodness to us, so that we are treated
just as if we had been really good when we haven't at all, and that is
what it means where it says, 'by whose stripes ye were healed.'"
"Yes, dear child, that is just it; and oh, how can we help loving him, who
died and suffered so much for us! Oh, how we ought to love him!"
"I do love him, papa. I ask him every day to help me to love him more and
serve him better. I ask earnestly for a new heart; for he is the hearer
and answerer of prayer. The Bible tells us so."
"And it is so sweet to know it," said Grace, speaking low and softly, "for
he is always near and able to help us, no matter what our trouble may be."
"Yes," said her father. "'Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will
deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.' 'Then shall ye call upon me, and
ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall
seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.'
God looks at the heart, my children, and will not hear and answer us if we
approach him with lip service only, not really wanting what we are asking
for."
"Yes, papa," said Elsie; "but I do really want the new heart I ask him
for. So he will give it to me; won't he?"
"Yes, daughter, for he has said so, and his promises never fail."
"I want to go to mamma now," said Neddie, getting down from his father's
knee.
"Yes, run along," said the captain. "Our lesson has been long enough for
to-day, I think, daughters, and you are all at liberty to go. You, Grace,
are looking weary, and it would be well for both you and Elsie to take a
nap: Lucilla also, if she wishes," he added, with a kindly glance at her.
"Thank you, papa, but I do not care to," she answered, as the others
hastened away; "the breeze makes it very pleasant here on deck."
"Yes, and you can rest nicely in one of these steamer chairs." Then,
taking a keener look into her face, "But something seems to be troubling
you, dear child. Tell your father what it is, that he may help and comfort
you," he added, in very tender tones, taking her hands and drawing her to
a seat close at his side.
"Oh, papa, it is that I am--I am afraid I have been deceiving myself and
am not really a Christian," she said, with a half sob and hiding her face
on his shoulders. "There is so little, if any, of the fruit of the Spirit
in me--no gentleness, goodness, meekness--though I do love Jesus and long
to be like him."
"In that case, dear child, I am sure you are one of his," he answered low
and tenderly. "Love is put first in the list and I have seen, to my great
joy, a steady growth in you of longsuffering, gentleness, and meekness.
Jesus said, 'By their fruits ye shall know them,' and I think that, though
far from perfect, yet my dear eldest daughter does show by her life that
she is earnestly striving to bring forth in it the fruit of the Spirit.
'The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day.' We are not made perfect in a moment, but are to
grow in grace, becoming more and more like the Master, and when the work
of grace is completed--so that we are made perfect in holiness--we do
immediately pass into glory, to be forever with the Lord."
"Yes, papa; and oh, I want you to pray for me that I may grow in grace
every day and hour of my life."
"I will, I do, daughter; and you must pray for your father too, for he is
by no means perfect yet."
"Papa, you do seem perfect to me," she said, with a look of reverent love
up into his face. "I never forget you in my prayers; never forget to thank
God for giving me such a dear, kind father. Papa, are you never troubled
with fears that you might be mistaken in thinking yourself a Christian?
Oh, no! I am sure not; for how could you be when you are such a good
Christian that no one who sees you every day, and knows you as your
daughter does, could have the least doubt about it?"
"My daughter looks at me with the partial eyes of filial love," he
replied, tenderly smoothing her hair, "but I too, in view of my sins and
shortcomings, am sometimes sorely troubled by doubts and fears. But then I
find peace and happiness in just giving myself anew to Jesus, and asking
him to take me for his very own and deliver me from all my sins and fears;
then, knowing that he is a hearer and answerer of prayers, I can go on my
way rejoicing. Can you not do the same?"
"Oh, yes, papa, I will. I remember now that you told me once to do so--to
come then to Him and he would receive me, and I need not trouble about the
question whether I had really come before. And I did and found, oh, such
rest and peace!"
"Yes; 'the peace of God which passeth all understanding! May it ever keep
your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.'"