“I want a sweet sense of Thy pardoning love,
That my manifold sins are forgiven;
That Christ as my Advocate pleadeth above,
That my name is recorded in Heaven.”
“Well, Annis, will you take a riding lesson this afternoon?” asked Mr.
Dinsmore as they left the dinner-table; then seeing the little girl
hesitate in her reply, “Ah, I think you are tired and would prefer a
nap.”
“Yes, sir, I believe I should, if――” again she hesitated.
“If I will not feel hurt?” he asked with a smile. “No, not in the
least. And I advise Elsie to try a siesta too. Then we older people
shall have two bright little girls to help our enjoyment of the
evening.”
Elsie thought it a very nice plan, and the two went away together to
carry it out.
“Your prescription seems to have worked well, Dinsmore,” was Dr.
Landreth’s smiling remark as the two young faces showed themselves in
the parlor shortly before tea, rosy, bright, and beaming with health
and happiness.
“Yes; I find there is no other restorer of wearied nature equal to
restful sleep,” Mr. Dinsmore said, regarding his little girl with his
wonted look of proud, fond, fatherly affection. “Are you quite rested,
daughter?” he asked, drawing her to his side.
“Yes, sir, I don’t believe I shall need any more sleep till after ten
o’clock to-night,” she answered, looking straight into his eyes with
an arch, sweet smile.
“Ah,” he said, with amusement, “quite an adroit way of putting a
request to be allowed to stay up beyond the regular hour for retiring.
Well, we’ll see about it when the time comes.”
“And Elsie will be contented with papa’s decision, whatever it may
be,” added Rose, smiling affectionately upon the little girl.
“Are you not fond of going to bed early, Elsie?” asked the doctor.
“Yes, sir, generally; but I think it is very nice to stay up a little
later sometimes, when papa is willing and I’m not sleepy.”
“And,” remarked Annis, “when the grown-up folks are playing games, or
talking in a very interesting way, it does seem hard for little folks
to have to go away and leave it all.”
“Yes,” said Mildred, “I can remember that I felt it so when I was a
child. Yet I mean to train my boy to go to his bed at a regular and
early hour, for I am convinced that it will be for his good.”
“I hope everybody wants to play with letters again to-night,” remarked
Annis; “because I’ve hunted up some very hard words for Cousin Horace
and Brother Charlie to make out.”
“You are not going to bestow all your favors upon them I hope,” Rose
said, playfully.
The older people being in an amiable mood, the wishes of both little
girls were gratified to some extent; the greater part of the evening
being spent in word-making, and Elsie permitted to stay up half an
hour beyond her regular bed-time.
Sunday always passed very quietly at the Oaks; the master and
mistress, having a supreme regard for the sacredness of the day, gave
no entertainments and allowed no unnecessary work in the house or on
the plantation. It was a time of peaceful Sabbath rest.
The church to which the family belonged was some miles distant, but
nothing except sickness or extremely inclement weather ever kept them
at home from the morning service――the only one held there.
The afternoon and evening were also profitably spent in studying the
Scriptures for themselves, and imparting their teachings to the
ignorant about them.
The first Sunday after the arrival of the cousins from Pleasant Plains
was clear and bright. The ladies and little girls drove to church in
the family carriage, the gentlemen accompanying them on horseback.
The short ride through a beautiful country, in the bright sunlight,
and pure, bracing autumn air, was a pleasant one to all; to Annis it
had the charm of novelty, to Dr. Landreth and Mildred that of
agreeable association. How often they had traversed that road
together, or met in the little church, during the winter she had spent
at Roselands years ago!
The Roselands family was represented to-day by Mr. Dinsmore, Adelaide,
and Lora. Mr. Travilla and his mother, from Ion, were present at the
service also, and at its close there was a little chat among them all
in the vestibule of the church――an exchange of kindly greetings and
inquiries ere the ladies were handed to their carriages and the
gentlemen mounted their steeds for the homeward trip.
“How do you spend the rest of the day, Elsie?” Annis asked, when they
found themselves again in Elsie’s pretty boudoir.
“Part of it in teaching the negroes about Jesus and the way to heaven.
Papa and mamma have classes of the grown-up ones, and I one of the
little boys and girls. I tell them Bible stories; sometimes from the
Old Testament and sometimes from the New. I have a simple little
catechism too that I teach them, by asking the questions and making
them repeat the answers after me,” Elsie replied, with an animation of
look and tone which showed that she felt greatly interested in her
work.
“I like best of all to talk to them about the wonderful love of
Jesus,” she went on; “how he left that beautiful heaven and came down
to our world, and labored and suffered and died the cruel death of the
cross; keeping God’s holy law for us, and bearing the penalty of our
sins; and how he rose again and ascended to heaven and ever lives
there to make intercession for us. O Annis, isn’t it the sweetest
story?”
Tears were trembling in the soft hazel eyes, and Annis, putting her
arms about her, said, “What a good little Christian you are, Elsie! I
wish I were one too.”
“Oh, I’m not at all good, Annis,” answered the little girl with
earnest sincerity; “but I do love Jesus. Don’t you?”
“I’m not sure. I do try to do right, but I so often do wrong that I’m
afraid I’m not a Christian.”
“But, O Annis, Christians are not people who never do wrong, but those
who trust only in the blood and merits of Jesus Christ; who expect to
be saved because of what he has done and suffered, and who long and
strive to be good and holy because they love him and want to please
him and be like him. Not because they expect to be saved by being
good. Don’t you remember the Bible says, ‘There is none that doeth
good, no, not one.’ ‘There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth
good, and sinneth not.’”
“Yes, I remember that, and that even the Apostle Paul said he couldn’t
do the good he wanted to, and couldn’t help doing the evil he didn’t
want to,” Annis said, thoughtfully. “I see the difference is that
Christians hate sin and want to be free from it because God hates it,
and it is dishonoring to him; and sinners love it and would only leave
it off for fear of punishment.”
“Yes, you know the Bible says, ‘Be ye therefore followers of God as
dear children’! Oh, I think I understand what that means! because,
loving my dear papa so much, and feeling so sure that I am a very dear
child to him, I almost always find it a real pleasure to obey him.”
“Yes, and I can understand it for the same reason. Isn’t it a sweet
text?”
“Yes, indeed! and, oh how many others there are that are ‘sweeter than
honey and the honeycomb’! as the Psalmist says,” Elsie exclaimed,
taking up her Bible and turning over its leaves.
“May I be with you while you talk to your little scholars?” asked
Annis.
“Oh, yes! if you wish; and perhaps you may like to teach some of them
yourself.”
“Well, maybe,” Annis answered, and just then the call to dinner came.
At the table Dr. Landreth asked Mr. Dinsmore the same question which
Elsie had answered to Annis, “How do you spend the rest of the day
here? I understand there is no afternoon or evening service near
enough for us to attend.”
“No, there is not,” replied Mr. Dinsmore; and went on to tell of the
afternoon instruction to the negroes.
“After that,” said he, “we usually fill up the time with suitable
reading, and I hear Elsie recite her catechism, passages of Scripture,
and perhaps a hymn or two. Most of our evening is usually spent in the
study of the Word――a Bible reading in which the three of us take part;
and we are very apt to have some sacred music after that. Will you and
Mildred and Annis join us in such exercises to-night?”
The invitation was accepted with pleasure by all three.
“What subject shall we take up to-night?” asked Mr. Dinsmore as they
gathered about the centre-table after tea, with Bibles, Concordance,
and Bible Text-Book.
“Christ a living Saviour,” suggested Mildred; “living still in both
his divine and his human nature.”
“There could not be a sweeter theme,” said Rose. “‘Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again;
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us.’”
“I should like nothing better,” said the doctor.
“Nor I,” added Mr. Dinsmore. “I have often thought that while we
cannot dwell too much upon the theme of Christ’s life on earth and
atoning sacrifice――his sufferings and death in our stead――we do not
think and talk enough of his resurrection and ascension into heaven;
of his mediatorial work there. Here in Hebrews we are told, ‘This man,
because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’”
“Yes,” said Mildred, “I have thought much about it since a talk I had
some time ago with a gentleman friend who is, I believe, a true
Christian, yet surprised me greatly by remarking that he had always
thought Christ’s body ceased to exist after his death, because――so it
seemed to him――he had no further use for it.”
“A very strange and unscriptural idea!” exclaimed Rose. “Why the Bible
seems to me to teach a belief in the resurrection of Christ necessary
to salvation. ‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.’ And it was his human body that died, was
buried, and rose again.”
“What did your friend think became of it?” queried the doctor; “matter
is indestructible; and besides we are told that he saw no corruption.”
“Yes; in several passages. Here is one――Acts 13, beginning with verse
29,” and Mildred read aloud, “‘And when they had fulfilled all that
was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in
a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many
days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are
his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings,
how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath
fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up
Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on
this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he
saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by
the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw
corruption; but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.’”
“There we have the whole thing,” remarked her husband, “and as far as
proof is concerned, need look no farther.”
“But, oh, mayn’t we go on and hunt out other passages?” asked Elsie
eagerly.
“What have you there?” asked her father, for her Bible was open in her
hand.
“The fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians, beginning with the third
verse, papa: ‘For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas, then
of the twelve: after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren
at once: of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some
are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of all the
apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out
of due time.’”
“Does Paul tell there of every time that the risen Saviour was seen
and recognized by those who had known him before his death?” asked Mr.
Dinsmore.
“Oh no indeed, papa! Mary Magdalen saw him in the garden just after he
had risen, and then―― But, Annis, don’t you want to tell of the
others?”
Annis looked her thanks, and added, “The two who were walking into the
country; the disciples met together in the upper room when Thomas
wasn’t with them, and afterward when he was with them; Peter and John
and some of the others when they were out in a boat fishing.”
Annis paused, and Mildred proposed that each passage bearing on the
subject should be sought out and read aloud, all taking turns.
“Not a link wanting in the chain of evidence,” remarked Mr. Dinsmore,
as they finished with these words from the account of the martyrdom of
Stephen: “‘But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right
hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son
of man standing on the right hand of God,’――we have just read, ‘that
he died, was buried, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven and
there remains at God’s right hand.’”
“Where he ever liveth to make intercession for us,” added Rose softly,
a glad light in her sweet blue eyes.
Then Mildred read aloud from her open Bible, “‘seeing then that we
have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.’”