"Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience,
hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." "Eva,"
she said, "that seems to me so simple. It seems to me to mean, that when
sorrow comes, then the great thing we have to do is, to see we do not
lose hold of _patience_; she seems linked to all the other graces, and
to lead them naturally into the heart, hand in hand, one by one. Eva,
dear child," she added, "is that what is meant?"
I said how often those words had cheered me, and how happy it is to
think that all the while these graces are illumining the darkness of the
heart, the dark hours are passing away, until all at once Hope steals to
the casement and withdraws the shutters; and the light which has slowly
been dawning all the time streams into the heart, "the love of God shed
abroad by the Holy Ghost."
"But," rejoined Aunt Cotta, "we cannot ourselves bring in Experience, or
reach the hand of Hope, or open the window to let in the light of love;
we can only look up to God, keep firm hold of Patience, and _she will
bring all the rest_."
"And yet," I said, "_peace_ comes before _patience_, peace with God
through faith in Him who was delivered for our offences. All these
graces do not lead us up to God. We have access to him first, and in his
presence we learn the rest."
Yes, indeed, the changes in the Wittemberg world since I left it, have
been wrought by the hand of life, and not by that of death, or time,
which is his shadow. For have not the brightest been wrought by the
touch of the Life himself?
It is God, not time, that has mellowed our grandmother's character; it
is God and not time that has smoothed the careworn wrinkles from Aunt
Cotta's brow.
It is life and not death that has all but emptied the Augustinian
convent, sending the monks back to their places in the world, to serve
God and proclaim his gospel.
It is the water of life that is flowing through home after home in the
channel of Dr. Luther's German Testament and bringing forth fruits of
love, and joy, and peace.
And we know it is life and not death which is reigning in that lonely
prison, wherein the child heard the resurrection hymns, and that is
triumphing now in the heart of him who sang them, wherever he may be!