CONCLUSION
[Illustration] "DORA is late—shockingly late—on her birthday, too! I
'am' surprised!" exclaimed Elsie, who was in a fidget of impatience to
present her sister with a marker which she had made.
"And aunt has kept us twenty—more than twenty minutes waiting for
prayers!" cried Amy. "I am surprised, for she always is so punctual."
"And Agnes has employed the time mending my gloves, the most surprising
thing of all," laughed Lucius.
"Why so surprising?" asked Elsie.
"Because a few months ago Agnes was much more given to picking holes
than to sewing them up," answered the boy. "I liked to plague her and
she to tease me, and I thought that we should always live a kind of
cat-and-dog life together. But now we're going to be grand allies,"
added the merry boy, clapping Agnes upon the shoulder; "by your
example, you'll help to mend my manners as well as my gloves!"
Lucius spoke in his saucy, playful way; but "there's many a true word
spoken in jest," and he was but expressing what all the family had
observed, that there was gradual but steady improvement in the outer
conduct of the once peevish and selfish girl.
But the sharpest conflict of Agnes upon her twelfth birthday had been
against a jealous spirit within. From a few words dropped by her aunt
on the previous evening, Agnes felt sure that her mother's likeness
would be given as a birthday present to one of the twins, and she had
not a doubt that the younger would be the one thus favoured.
"It was just the same last birthday," thought Agnes, with bitterness;
"I am given some makeshift, Dora has what is really of value. It is
rather hard that she should always be preferred before her elder
sister because she is called after my aunt, whilst I am named after
my mother. But oh! How wicked is this feeling of jealousy, how sinful
these unkind and covetous thoughts! Lord! Help me to overcome this
secret temptation, and to feel pleasure, real pleasure, when I see Dora
wearing that which is so precious to us both!"
As the thought, or rather the prayer, passed through the mind of Agnes,
the door opened and Miss Clare entered, followed by Dora. Their aunt
held the beautiful brooch in her hand, and going up to the elder twin,
whom she had not met before that morning, with a kiss and a whispered
blessing, fastened the precious jewel in her dress.
That twenty-fourth day of December was a day long remembered with
delight by many a poor child in Chester, for large was the number of
scholars (it would be scarcely just to call them ragged) who enjoyed
the feast, the Christmas-tree, and the varied amusements provided for
them in the large red house by their benefactress, Miss Clare.
Specially was the beautiful, the wonderful model which the young
gentlefolk had made the theme of many a conversation in the low
courts and lanes from which the guests had been gathered. Worn, weary
mothers, at their sewing or washing, paused, needle in hand, or with
arms whitened with soap-suds, to hear of the golden pillars and silver
loops, and above all of the splendid embroidery that adorned the inner
part of the model, that part which, as Miss Clare had told them, was
the Holy of holies.
"And the young ladies looked just as pleased and happy as we," a
bare-footed little urchin observed at the end of a lively narration of
all the wonders that he had seen; "all but one, and her eyes were red
as if she'd been a-crying,—what could 'she' have had to make her cry?
But she smiled, too, when we clapped our hands and shouted for joy as
we saw the beautiful tent!"
What delighted their eyes and pleased their fancy was what naturally
made the greatest impression on the ragged scholars who had stared in
wondering admiration on the model of the Tabernacle of Israel. But the
concluding words of a little address made by Miss Clare to the children
were what sank deepest into the memories and the hearts of her twin
nieces.
[Illustration]
"I have described to you, my dear young pupils, the various parts of
this model," she said; "let me now briefly point out a few lessons
which we should all carry away. In Israel's Tabernacle we see a TYPE of
every Christian, in whose body, as St. Paul tells us, God's Holy Spirit
deigns to dwell. In that living Tabernacle, the lowly heart is the Holy
of holies, because it is cleansed by the blood of sprinkling; in it the
Commandments of God are treasured, and the light of His love shines
within. But, as the Tabernacle was not intended to last for ever, but
to give place to a far more splendid building, so it is with these
bodies of ours.
"As Solomon's magnificent temple, glorious and fair, and firm on its
deep foundation, far surpassed the Tabernacle made to be moved from
place to place; so the glorified bodies of saints when they are raised
from their graves will surpass these weak, mortal bodies in which they
served their Lord upon earth. For what saith the Apostle St. Paul:
"'WE KNOW THAT IF OUR EARTHLY HOUSE OF THIS TABERNACLE WERE DISSOLVED,
WE HAVE A BUILDING OF GOD, A HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS, ETERNAL IN THE
HEAVENS.'"
THE END.