"WE HAVE BEGUN BACKWARDS."
"WELL," said Mr. Reid, "we should want to have one of our number not
'on a level.' How would it do to appoint you, Dr. Everett, to give us
a few lectures in hygiene? Popular lectures about air and exercise and
ventilation and bathing, and all sorts of every-day topics about which
people are ignorant."
"That's a capital idea, Reid. Those fellows could certainly be
benefited by a little attention to such questions; and I'm sure the
rest of us would like to hear of the principles which govern these
important laws. Such lectures put into popular form are decidedly
interesting, I think. Let us vote for them." This was Mr. Roberts's
hearty seconding.
But the doctor laughed.
"There is a ludicrous side to it which you do not see," he said.
"Imagine me holding forth on the importance of ventilation, for
instance, to a poor fellow who comes from a region where father
and mother, and a horde of children of both sexes and all ages,
crowd together in one room, and that a cellar, where the sun never
penetrates, and the air that crawls in through the one small window is
reeking With even more impurities than can be found inside; or talking
about bathing to the poor wretches who have no clothes to change, and
barely water enough, by carrying it long distances, to satisfy their
most pressing needs!
"Still, Reid, I'm not quarrelling with your idea. There is a sensible
side to it; there are things that I could tell even those boys which
might interest them, and would certainly be to their advantage to
know. The subject is one which can be popularized to suit even such
an audience. I'll try for it occasionally if it shall seem best, but
it doesn't meet my demand. I want us all on a platform where we shall
start in equal ignorance and get on together. Of course you are all
more or less familiar with all the facts that I should have to present,
and the boys would know it. They are sharp fellows; it wouldn't take
them an hour to discover that we were fishing for them; and if there is
any one thing on which they are at present determined, it is probably
that they will not be benefited. What is there that one of us knows
of which the others are ignorant? French won't do, for Miss Dennis is
acquainted with that language, I think, and so are you, Reid, are you
not?"
"Well, I can stammer through a few sentences. I don't speak it like a
native, as you do."
At this revelation a vivid blush glowed on Gracie Dennis's cheek. She
remembered Professor Ellis's comments in French. Then the doctor had
understood, though his face was so imperturbable! What could he have
thought of the courtesy of her guest?
Meantime Mr. Reid wore a perplexed face.
"You are right," he said to the doctor; "we are not enough on a level;
I felt our advantage last night when Miss Dennis was explaining the
type-writer. But I don't see the way clear. What subject is there on
which all but one of us could meet on common ground, and that one could
turn professor?"
Here interposed Mr. Roberts, speaking in a meek tone of voice:—
"If I were not a modest man, I should venture a suggestion; as it is, I
really don't know what to do."
The doctor turned to him quickly:—
"Out with it, man; if you are master of a profession, or a trade, or a
theory, unknown to the rest of us, you are bound on your honour as a
member of this unique organization to present it."
At the same moment Mrs. Roberts came to his aid.
"O Evan, teach us shorthand!"
Whereupon Mr. Roberts heaved what was intended to appear as a sigh of
relief, and announced that his modesty was preserved.
Upon this suggestion they seized with eagerness; not one of them knew
anything about phonetic writing, save Mr. Roberts, and he was master of
the art.
"It is the very thing!" the doctor said with heartiness. "I should like
exceedingly to learn it, and Reid and the ladies may be able to make it
useful in a hundred ways; and as for the seven, if they really master
it, it may be the foundation of a fortune for some of them."
So, without more ado, it was planned that on the very next Monday
evening the subject should be skilfully presented, its importance
and its fascinations discussed, and the boys be beguiled into taking
a first lesson, sandwiched in between the all-important reading and
writing lessons.
Alas for plans! On the very next Monday the conspirators, with the
exception of young Reid, were together by seven o'clock. The faint
aroma of coffee floated through the room. A fruit-basket filled with
oranges occupied a conspicuous table, and everything waited for the
guests.
While they waited, instead of enjoying themselves as the four were
certainly capable of doing, they were noticeably restless—listened
for the shuffling of careless feet on the steps, and the sound of
uncultured voices in the hall, and waited expectantly whenever the bell
pealed, only to be obliged to send word to some caller that "Mr. and
Mrs. Roberts were engaged."
The special occupation of the four seemed to be to look at their
watches and to remark that the doctor's was a trifle fast, and to
wonder if half-past seven would be a more suitable hour for the boys,
and to wonder what could be detaining Reid.
At last it was half-past seven, and then it was fifteen minutes of
eight, and then it was ten minutes of eight!
And then the doorbell rang again. It was Reid, and he was alone! One
glance at his distressed face told the lookers-on that something was
amiss, even before he exclaimed:—
"You won't see a boy to-night!"
"Why?" "What is the trouble?" "Where are they?"
These were the various ways of putting the same question.
"One of the M'Cullum partners has become interested in the boys, it
seems, and has concluded that he will try what he can do towards their
elevation; so he has commenced by presenting each one of them with a
ticket to the Green Street Theatre, and there they are at this moment!"
This startling intelligence was variously received.
Dr. Everett exclaimed,—"Is it possible?"
Gracie Dennis remarked that it was something like what she had
expected; Mrs. Roberts said not a word; and Mr. Roberts added to the
astonishment of the moment by bursting into a laugh.
Poor Reid seemed to feel the laugh more than anything; his face
gathered into heavier clouds than before, he bit his lip to hold back
the vexed words that were just ready to burst forth, and strode almost
angrily to the farther corner of the room.
An embarrassed silence seemed to fall upon the others. At least Gracie
felt embarrassed; the doctor looked simply expectant.
At last Mr. Roberts drew himself up from his lounging attitude and
broke into the stillness.
"Ah, now, good people, don't let us make serious mistakes! Come back
here, my dear young brother, and let us look this thing in the face,
and talk it over calmly. Are we children playing at benevolence that at
the first discouragement we should cry out,—
"'All is lost!' And retire vanquished?
"Come, I laughed because really this does not seem such a serious
matter to me as it seems to present to the rest of you.
"What did we expect? Here are seven boys, right from the gutters;
somehow we have had them laid on our hearts, and have enlisted to help
to fight the battle that is going on about them in this world. Christ
died to save them, and Satan means that the sacrifice shall be in vain.
He is bringing all his powers to bear on them, and he has many and
varied powers.
"Here comes into the scene a man benevolently inclined—not a Christian,
but in his way a philanthropist. By accident, he has come in contact
with one of the boys; by accident, he learns that something—he does
not know quite what—is being attempted to benefit them. Can't you give
him the credit of being honest? The only thing he thinks of that he
can do to help is to give them an evening's entertainment. At one of
the decent theatres there is being presented what seems to be known
in their parlance as a 'moral play!' So he presents each boy with a
ticket. Now, what did we expect of those boys?
"Last week a lady and two gentlemen who have been members of our church
for years left the regular prayer-meeting and went to the Philharmonic
concert.
"Ought we to expect that it would even occur to our seven boys to give
up what to them is a rare treat for the pleasure of spending an evening
with us? As for the moral obligation, they have probably never so much
as heard the words.
"Isn't it time we knew what we were about? What are we after? It is
well enough to teach the poor fellows to read and write, and to help to
lift them up in other ways, but our efforts will amount to very little
unless we succeed in bringing them to the great Lever of human society;
unless Christ takes hold of this thing we shall fail. Now, has he taken
hold? Is he, at least, as much interested in them as we are? Is his
Holy Spirit preceding and supplementing all our efforts? And if this is
the case, is an evening at a theatre going to ruin his plans?"
Long before these earnest sentences were concluded, Reid had returned
from his distant corner and taken a seat near his employer. His eyes
were full of tears, and his voice trembled:—
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Roberts; I'm an ignorant blunderer; I did feel
for the moment as though everything were lost."
"We have begun backwards," said Mr. Roberts. "I was reading to-day what
a mistake the missionaries made for years in trying to 'civilize' the
Greenlanders. And what a perfect failure they made of it until one day,
almost by accident, a man began to tell them about Christ on the cross,
and the story melted them. I don't think we have thought enough about
him in this matter."
"I stand convicted," Dr. Everett said; "I've made the same mistake, I
believe, in all my efforts for people. I have been praying for them, it
is true; but after all, I feel now as though there had been too much
relying on human means, and not enough on God. It is a case of 'these
ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone.'"
"Well," said Mr. Roberts, looking at his watch, "we are in the same
condemnation; it is, I believe, the most common and one of the most
fatal mistakes that Christian workers make. But there is a way out. We
expected to spend until ten o'clock with those boys. It is nearly nine
now: suppose we spend the next hour with Christ, asking for the power
of the Holy Spirit on any and every effort that we may make for them in
the future? Our ultimate aim is to bring every one of them to Jesus,
and he knows it; now if we have gone about in the wrong way, we have
only to ask his forgiveness and look to him steadily for guidance. What
do you say, friends? Shall we spend the hour in taking them to the only
One who really can afford them lasting help?"
I suppose that he who "maketh the wrath of man to praise him" is
equally able to manage the folly of man. Could the injudicious
philanthropist have looked into that room that evening, and heard the
prayers that went up to God for those boys, and understood something
of the power of prayer, he would have had one illustration of how God
manages the foolishness of men.
It was a very earnest prayer-meeting. These workers had each one bowed
in secret, and with more or less earnestness asked for God's blessing
on their efforts; but it occurred to them that evening, as a very
strange thing, that they had never unitedly prayed for this before.
Therefore, there was an element of confession in all the prayers that
moved Gracie Dennis strangely. Especially was this the case when she
heard her old acquaintance, Flossy, pour out her soul's longings. It
happened, so strange are the customs of Christians, that though this
was the daughter of a minister of the gospel, herself a Christian,
she had never before heard a lady pray in the presence of gentlemen.
She had heard of their doing so, heard them criticised with sharp
sarcasm. Some of the criticisms which had sounded full of keenness and
wit when she heard them, recurred to her at this time, and some way,
with Flossy's low, earnest voice filling her heart, they dwindled into
shallowness and coarseness. All the same, their baneful influence was
on her, and helped to hold her back from opening her lips, for the
critic had been Professor Ellis.
When the hostess and her young guest were left alone together that
evening, the latter had a question to ask:—
"Flossy Shipley!"—the name, you will remember, which she always went
back to when excited. "I didn't know you believed in praying in public!
Have you changed in everything?"
"In public, my dear!" with a quiet smile. "Why, I am in my own house."
"Oh yes, but you know what I mean—before gentlemen. Do you really think
it is necessary?"
"As to that, Gracie, I don't believe I thought anything about it. I
wanted to pray for those boys, and so I prayed."
"And didn't you really shrink from it at all? How very queer! Flossy,
I do believe nobody was ever so much changed by religion as you have
been. I don't see what makes the difference. I'm sure I think I'm a
Christian, but I could never do such a thing as that."
"Not if you believed it to be your duty?"
"But I don't believe it," said the fair logician, her face flushing;
"I think it is out of place. I beg your pardon, Flossy, I don't mean I
think it sounded badly in you; but only that for me it would be horrid,
and I couldn't do it."
"Then what are you talking about, my dear? If you should never consider
it your duty, you would certainly never be called upon to do it."