That seems to me the most awful of times, and nothing but awful."

"Perfectly correct, Miss Flora, and just as it is described in the Bible. When the kings and the great men and the rich men will say to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us!'--"

"But you talk of being glad?" said Flora, looking a good deal troubled.

"Ay, but I was thinking of the other party," said Mr. Murray gravely,--"from whom will go up a very different cry, a shout of gladness--'Lo, this is our G.o.d! we have waited for Him, and He will save us.'"

"Save them from what?"

"From all the oppressions and miseries inflicted upon them by the rulers of this world; and more, from all the evils under which humanity has been groaning ever since the fall. Then will strike the hour of the world's freedom. That will be the time when the bridegroom cometh, and they that are ready will go in with him to the marriage. Don't you think they will be glad, who have been waiting in darkness and weariness for so long? Then comes the marriage supper, and the everlasting union between Christ and His Church. Should not the Church be glad!"

"You said, 'they that are ready.'"

"Yes."

"Who are they?"

"Do you remember the parable of the marriage supper? Don't you recollect, one man had not on a wedding garment?"

"But what _is_ the wedding-garment?" said Flora, who looked as if she had some difficulty to keep her composure.

"Shall I answer you in the words of one of old time?--'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my G.o.d; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.'"

"Then it is something given," said Flora slowly.

"Given, by the King to the guests; a free gift, Miss Flora, to all who accept the King's invitation."

Flora asked no more, but lay still on her couch of pine branches, looking out on the calm and glorified hills. n.o.body else broke the silence; I think Fenton was gone to sleep; and the others were quiet.

"The shadows are going the wrong way," said Flora at last. "I wish this day would last longer!"

"'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,'" said Meredith.

"Don't quote such a dreadfully hackneyed sentiment!" said his sister.

"How comes it, Mr. Murray, that beautiful things in nature never grow hackneyed?"

"They are always fresh. No two days in one's experience are just like each other."

"There never was a day in my experience like this one," said Flora.

"Ditto, aren't you going to read some more?"

"It will be a variety, if I do."

"We are made to like variety--as Mr. Murray has just reminded you."

Meredith guessed that his sister cared more about putting off the hour of departure than about the reading in the abstract; and he opened his book again, for n.o.body else made any objection to Flora's proposal.

"I shall read you," said he, "the story of a pastor and a farmer."

"Those are the people your stories are generally about," said Flora. "I hope the variety will lie in the treatment. Go on. I don't care what you read."

"'In a certain country, that I am not going to name, there is a parish village. In the parsonage lives a pastor; it is not I, however. This pastor faithfully serves our beloved church with the Word of G.o.d, which he preaches in truth, and with the holy sacraments, which he administers as he ought. And wherever this is done, the fruit will not be wanting; for G.o.d has promised it, and He keeps His word still, although among men there is little truth or faith any longer to be found.

"'With temporal goods, however, this pastor is not specially well provided; and were it not that he has a living G.o.d in the heavens, he must many a time grow anxious and dispirited; which in truth he does not always escape, as he himself humbly confesses. For if you have a small benefice, a large family, and a couple of children at school to boot, sometimes that gives even a believer the headache; though indeed there is no need for that, were faith but strong and prayer simple enough. Now there are cultivated fields belonging to the living; but as the pastor cannot drive the plough spiritual and the plough agricultural both at once, he hires out his ground; that he may give himself the more diligently to the cultivation of hearts. From these hired-out acres comes not a small part of his scanty means, and therefore it becomes a very desirable thing that he should dispose of his ground suitably. With most of his fields, indeed, this is not difficult, for they are fruitful and favourably situated and easy to get a good tenant for them. But one of his pieces of ground, and a pretty large one, lies on the slope of a hill which is wooded at the top; this field n.o.body will take, because in great rains loose earth and stones come rolling down over the slope from the hill above, and in this way the whole crop may easily be destroyed.

It comes to my mind that the fault probably lies at the door of the beloved Enclosings. In the course of them it might well happen that too much wood has been cleared from the hill and sold. By that means the soil has been laid bare and the rain floods can wash it off anywhere they come. At any rate, n.o.body wants the field; and it always gives the pastor a stab in the heart when he comes past it; and he does not content himself with thinking, but he prays too, and promises that he will give to the Lord Jesus, for the mission, a portion of the hire of the field, if only a tenant may be found for it.

"'And He in the heavens has heard the pastor's prayer. Not long after, there comes a man of the parish, who is not in possession of ground enough to make his farming suffice for the wants of his family, and who therefore would willingly hire some more acres. He offers to take the neglected field off the pastor's hands. The upright pastor does not hide from him the reason why the field has. .h.i.therto found no tenant. But this man, who loves the Lord Jesus, and who therefore is a hearty friend of his pastor, declares that he has already quietly considered all that; and he has thought among other things that it must be very important to the pastor to let out this field, for to be sure the boys cost money; and it is very desirable for himself to hire a field, since he also has a great many mouths to feed. So both of them would be the better off.

The Lord must have the care of the thing, and that He is well able for; he himself also would pray the Lord faithfully to this end, and he would make it the one stipulation with his beloved pastor, that he would stand by him and help him in faithful prayer. The two men gave each other the hand upon that. The man hiring the ground had also told the Lord that he would give Him a portion of the produce of the field for the conversion of the heathen, and that all the same whether the produce were much or little. But the man had said nothing about this to his pastor, and he again on the other side had said nothing to the man about his own contract with the Lord; so that each of them had thus kept in his heart a secret for himself, which was known to the Lord alone. But surely I know that the Lord thereupon looked kindly on both the men.

"'Now in the autumn the farmer sets himself vigorously to work to get the field in order; and the Lord gives His blessing upon it; up comes the seed merrily, and the winter does it no hurt; the Lord has graciously sheltered it. With a wet summer the corn really shoots up, and stands so fine that it is magnificent to see. Both pastor and farmer are heartily glad at the sight, and both at the same time have a secret recollection of their vow, and are still more glad. But many of the peasants, who are not lovers of the Lord, and therefore also not lovers of their good pastor, and of the good farmer as little, feel no pleasure, but a regular hateful grudge in their hearts; for indeed there is everywhere a plenty of envy and spite to be found among unbelievers, because they make their G.o.d out of what is earthly, and that is all they care about. However they comfort themselves with the thought that when the thunder-showers once come with their violent rain-pours, then surely there will be stones and soil enough rolling down upon the field from off the hill in the end to destroy all that is standing upon it. Verily that is not a G.o.dly sort of satisfaction, but a true Satanic delight, for Satan rejoices when any evil happens to people.

"'And at last, the wish of the peasants seems to be fulfilled. There comes up an uncommonly violent thunder-storm; the rain pours down from heaven in streams, as if the clouds had burst; so that regular brooks are flowing down the village streets. Then the envious people triumph; there is no mistake about it, the field lying so exposed on the slope of the hill must be thoroughly laid waste. Those two men, it may well be, tremble too, for the storm is too frightful; but lose heart they do not; on the contrary, the need drives them to more ardent prayer: "Lord, help, and do not let the field be spoiled. Thou art the strong, almighty G.o.d of Sabaoth, and Thy hand is not shortened, but Thine arm is stretched out still." So they prayed; and when the storm was past they went confidently up to the field, a good many accompanying them; and as they were going, and while the many who went along could hardly hide their delight, they were singing in their hearts the hymn--

"Was mein Gott will gescheh allzeit, Sein Wille ist der beste; Zu helfen ist Er dem bereit, Der an Ihn glaubet feste."'"

"Ditto, we don't understand that."

"It means about this. 'The will of my G.o.d be done always. His will is the best. He is always ready to help them who rest on Him in firm faith.'"

"'With that they are able to look up cheerfully and they are of good courage. And when they arrive at the field, what do they see? The entire field is unharmed. The stalks of grain lift their heads up bravely, as if they too would give thanks for the beautiful rain which has so refreshed them. But on both sides of the field a whole stream has poured down from the hill, and nothing is to be seen but a wild ma.s.s of rocks and stones. Whose is the strong hand which seized the rain flood, and parted it just before it came to the field, and so gently led it down on both sides of the field? Moved to the depth of their hearts, our two friends were constrained to cry out--"The Lord, He is the G.o.d! The Lord, He is the G.o.d! Give our G.o.d the glory." And it is to be hoped that many of the unbelievers, if not aloud, yet quietly joined in the prayer with them.

"'And now, when the harvest was finished, and the farmer brought to the pastor what he had promised to give the Lord of the produce of the field, and then also the pastor's vow was made known to the farmer, the two fell upon their knees again and thanked the Lord for His goodness, because His mercy endureth for ever. Must not such gifts to the heathen go with G.o.d's special blessing resting upon them?'"

"Is that all?" said Maggie.

"That is all," said Meredith smiling.

"I do not know what to make of that story," said Flora.

"Why?"

"Storms come from natural causes."

"Oh, do they?" said Meredith. "You do not believe then what the psalm says--'He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind'"----

"But that is poetry."

"So is this," said Mr. Murray,--"'Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters; or a way for the lightning of thunder; to cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein is no man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?'"

"Well," said Flora a little abashed, "isn't it poetry?"

"I do think, Flo," said her brother, "you have forgotten all our talks around the breakfast table in Florida and elsewhere."

"Here again," said Mr. Murray,--"'He saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of His strength.' It won't do, Miss Flora, to resist the fact. And I would remark, that the highest poetry is the highest truth also."

"But do you think, Mr. Murray, if it is so, that G.o.d will change His arrangements just for men's asking Him."

"I don't _think_, I know it, Miss Flora. It is precisely the Lord's way.

But we cannot stop to talk about that now. My friends, do you see where the sun is?"