Ester Ried Part 4

"I suppose it's talking to those wicked old fellows who lived before the flood, or some such time."

"Well, _any_how," said Julia, "I should like to know what it all means. I wish mother would come home. I wonder how Mrs. Vincent is. Do you suppose she will die, Alfred?"

"Don't know--just hear this, Julia! 'But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.' Wouldn't you like to see anybody who did all that?"

"Sadie," said Julia, rising suddenly, and moving over to where the frolic was going on, "won't you tell us about our lesson? We don't understand a bit about it; and I can't learn any thing that I don't understand."

"Bless your heart, child! I suspect you know more about the Bible this minute than I do. Mother was too busy taking care of you two, when I was a little chicken, to teach me as she has you."

"Well, but what _can_ that mean--'If a man strikes you on one cheek, let him strike the other too?'"

"Yes," said Alfred, chiming in, "and, 'If anybody takes your coat away, give him your cloak too.'"

"I suppose it means just that," said Sadie. "If anybody steals your mittens, as that Bush girl did yours last winter, Julia, you are to take your hood right off, and give it to her."

"Oh, Sadie! you _don't_ ever mean that."

"And then," continued Sadie, gravely, "if that shouldn't satisfy her, you had better take off your shoes and stockings, and give her them."

"Sadie," said Ester, "how _can_ you teach those children such nonsense?"

"She isn't teaching _me_ any thing," interrupted Alfred. "I guess I ain't such a dunce as to swallow all that stuff."

"Well," said Sadie, meekly, "I'm sure I'm doing the best I can; and you are all finding fault. I've explained to the best of _my_ abilities Julia, I'll tell you the truth;" and for a moment her laughing face grew sober. "I don't know the least thing about it--don't pretend to. Why don't you ask Ester? She can tell you more about the Bible in a minute, I presume, than I could in a year."

Ester laid her book on the window. "Julia, bring your Bible here," she said, gravely. "Now what is the matter? I never heard you make such a commotion over your lesson."

"Mother always explains it," said Alfred, "and she hasn't got back from Mrs. Vincent's; and I don't believe anyone else in this house _can_ do it."

"Alfred," said Ester, "don't be impertinent. Julia, what is that you want to know?"

"About the man being struck on one cheek, how he must let them strike the other too. What does it mean?"

"It means just _that_, when girls are cross and ugly to you, you must be good and kind to them; and, when a boy knocks down another, he must forgive him, instead of getting angry and knocking back."

"Ho!" said Alfred, contemptuously, "_I_ never saw the boy yet who would do it."

"That only proves that boys are naughty, quarrelsome fellows, who don't obey what the Bible teaches."

"But, Ester," interrupted Julia, anxiously, "was that true what Sadie said about me giving my shoes and stockings and my hood to folks who stole something from me?"

"Of course not. Sadie shouldn't talk such nonsense to you. That is about men going to law. Mother will explain it when she goes over the lesson with you."

Julia was only half satisfied. "What does that verse mean about doing good to them that--"

"Here, I'll read it," said Alfred--"'But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.'"

"Why, that is plain enough. It means just what it says. When people are ugly to you, and act as though they hated you, you must be very good and kind to them, and pray for them, and love them."

"Ester, does G.o.d really mean for us to love people who are ugly to us, and to be good to them?"

"Of course."

"Well, then, why don't we, if G.o.d says so? Ester, why don't you?"

"That's the point!" exclaimed Sadie, in her most roguish tone. "I'm glad you've made the application, Julia."

Now Ester's heart had been softening under the influence of these peaceful Bible words. She believed them; and in her heart was a real, earnest desire to teach her brother and sister Bible truths. Left alone, she would have explained that those who loved Jesus _were_ struggling, in a weak feeble way, to obey these directions; that she herself was trying, trying _hard_ sometimes; that _they_ ought to. But there was this against Ester--her whole life was so at variance with those plain, searching Bible rules, that the youngest child could not but see it; and Sadie's mischievous tones and evident relish of her embarra.s.sment at Julia's question, destroyed the self-searching thoughts. She answered, with severe dignity:

"Sadie, if I were you, I wouldn't try to make the children as irreverent as I was myself." Then she went dignifiedly from the room.

Dr. Van Anden paused for a moment before Sadie, as she sat alone in the sitting-room that same Sabbath-evening.

"Sadie," said he, "is there one verse in the Bible which you have never read?"

"Plenty of them, Doctor. I commenced reading the Bible through once; but I stopped at some chapter in Numbers--the thirtieth, I think it is, isn't it? or somewhere along there where all those hard names are, you know. But why do you ask?"

The doctor opened a large Bible which lay on the stand before them, and read aloud: "Ye have perverted the words of the living G.o.d."

Sadie looked puzzled. "Now, Doctor, what ever possessed you to think that I had never read that verse?"

"G.o.d counts that a solemn thing, Sadie."

"Very likely; what then?"

"I was reading on the piazza when the children came to you for an explanation of their lesson."

Sadie laughed. "Did you hear that conversation, Doctor? I hope you were benefited." Then, more gravely: "Dr. Van Anden, do you really mean me to think that I was perverting Scripture?"

"_I_ certainly think so, Sadie. Were you not giving the children wrong ideas concerning the teachings of our Savior?"

Sadie was quite sober now. "I told the truth at last, Doctor. I don't know any thing about these matters. People who profess to be Christians do not live according to our Savior's teaching. At least _I_ don't see any who do; and it sometimes seems to me that those verses which the children were studying, _can not_ mean what they say, or Christian people would surely _try_ to follow them."

For an answer, Dr. Van Anden turned the Bible leaves again, and pointed with his finger to this verse, which Sadie read:

"But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation."

After that he went out of the room.

And Sadie, reading the verse over again, could not but understand that she _might_ have a perfect pattern, if she would.

CHAPTER V.

THE POOR LITTLE FISH.