FOLLOWING.
"WHAT are you looking at, Auntie?" The children crowded out of the
French window, and stood on the verandah by her side, the stars and the
deep twilight sky sending a sort of thrill to their hearts.
"I was watching that old woman and her grandson on their way home. What
do you think I heard the boy say as he passed the hedge?"
"What?" asked Rose, curiously. Auntie always had something pleasant to
say.
"'I can't see the way, grannie, it's so dark!' he complained; and then
a gentle voice came out of the gloom, and I heard these words: 'If you
keep close behind, and follow me, we shall soon get into the light!'"
"And I thought, children, that here was our promised twilight talk
about 'following' all ready to our hand!"
"Now it seems to me that little Ted Jones is a picture of us."
"There are often places in our everyday lives which are dark and
mysterious to us ignorant ones; sorrows, or trials, misunderstandings,
difficulties, sins, temptations—you can all put your own special
difficulty into the story, and call it 'darkness.' The question often
comes to each of us, how are we to get out of this dilemma, or this
difficulty, or this bad temper, or temptation?"
"I know well that it seems very real and large and overwhelming to
us. But the Lord Jesus bids us follow Him closely, assuring us with
tenderness that is wonderful, 'He that followeth Me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life!'"
"But," said Oswald, pressing closer to her side, "there are so many
things that are so small, Auntie, and yet they worry you no end!
Perhaps you've had a lesson to learn, and you've had a headache, or
somebody has thrown you over, and made it ache, and so your lesson
isn't half prepared, and you get up in the morning feeling that the
world is dark and you cannot see any way out of the bother. Oh, there
are heaps of things! That's only one! What can we do in such a case?"
There was a pause for an instant. Aunt Ruth was trying to put herself
into Oswald's circumstances, and thinking how to bring her great Remedy
down to his need. To make him understand that Jesus Christ is a remedy
for all ills.
"I think," she said, slowly, "the best plan would be to go to God, our
Father, and tell Him just how the difficulty came, and then ask Him
definitely 'in the name of Jesus,' to make some way out of it—"
"And then?" asked Oswald, eagerly.
"Then I should do the next most obvious thing. Either look over the
unfinished lesson if there is time, or go quietly into class if there
isn't, and wait to see how God will help you. The answer may come in
some very simple way, but if you look for it, it will surely come, and
you must thank Him."
Oswald pressed her arm. Aunt Ruth was so comforting.
"Every one of us has our own special difficulty, and what is 'darkness'
to Oswald may not appear at all bad to Tom!"
Tom could hear a smile in his Aunt's voice as she turned towards him.
"The timid child who hates to go upstairs after dusk, feels itself
quite safe if father is in front! So little Ted Jones could not see the
way to go, and he felt afraid in the dark lanes lest he was not going
right. But grannie knew! She had been that way before too many times to
mistake, and if little Ted would only keep close to her, and trust her,
she would lead him safely home. Presently the cottage door would open,
there would be a flood of light, and little Ted would be at home!"
"How nice!" said Jean, with her eyes shining in the darkness.
But Aunt Ruth was speaking again. "Jesus says 'He that followeth Me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. If any
man serve Me, let him follow Me, and whither I am, there shall My
servant be!"
There was a moment's pause, and the children were looking up to the
starlit sky.
"But, sometimes," said Tom, in a low voice, "the path seems difficult,
and we lose sight of the Guide, perhaps, and cannot be sure He is
there—"
"Yes," said Aunt Ruth, "I know that; but I think then the best way is
to speak to our Guide. Tell Him we find the way rough and lonely, and
ask Him by his Spirit to reveal His presence to us. As surely as we do,
we shall get a comforting assurance that He is there; that He knows
the way, that He has been through all our temptations, and that He is
safely leading us Home! Oh, the rest of being sure that Jesus knows the
way, children!"
"I suppose," said Rose, "that if we were more sure about Jesus we
should not be half so afraid!"
"'Sure,'" echoed Tom; "how do you mean?"
"I mean," hesitated Rose, "that if we had more confidence in the way He
was leading us we should be more satisfied with our circumstances—"
Rose had touched upon one of the great problems of life. The others did
not know it, but Aunt Ruth did.
"Have I ever told you about the Alpine guide?" she asked suddenly.
"No, I think not," said Rose, wonderingly.
"When people want to make an ascent of a difficult mountain, the first
thing they do is to secure the services of a guide."
"This guide must be thoroughly qualified, strong and reliable, have
climbed that particular mountain many times before, and must be ready
to undertake the charge of the traveller—"
"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Jean.
"And then, when the traveller and the guide have made the compact, the
traveller gives himself over to do exactly as the guide says, doesn't
he?"
"Of course he does," said Tom.
"And they start together, and the guide goes before in all the
difficult places. He cares for the traveller; he holds him up; he
assures him that he knows the way. As they mount higher, the guide cuts
each step in the ice, and the traveller must put his foot where his
guide's have been, with unquestioning faith: herein is his only safety."
"Will he grudge his confidence when the summit is reached, and they
stand beneath the vault of heaven with nothing between?"
"So we, children, shall thank and praise our great Guide for His
faithfulness, and shall know those words true by and bye—'He that
followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life'!"