Queechy Volume I Part 29

"The birds without barn Or storehouse are fed; From them let us learn To trust for our bread.

His saints what is fitting Shall ne'er be denied, So long as 'tis written, 'The Lord will provide.'

"His call we obey, Like Abraham of old, Not knowing our way, But faith makes us bold.

And though we are strangers, We have a good guide, And trust in all dangers 'The Lord will provide.'

"We may like the s.h.i.+ps In tempests be tossed On perilous deeps, But cannot be lost.

Though Satan enrages The wind and the tide, The promise engages 'The Lord will provide.'

"When Satan appears To stop up our path, And fills us with fears, We triumph by faith.

He cannot take from us, Though oft he has tried, This heart-cheering promise, 'The Lord will provide.'

"He tells us we're weak, Our hope is in vain, The good that we seek We ne'er shall obtain; But when such suggestions Our spirits have tried, This answers all questions, 'The Lord will provide.'

"No strength of our own, Or goodness we claim; But since we have known The Saviour's great name, In this, our strong tower, For safety we hide; The Lord is our power!

'The Lord will provide.'

"When life sinks apace, And death is in view, This word of his grace Shall comfort us through.

No fearing nor doubting, With Christ on our side, We hope to die shouting 'The Lord will provide!' "

Guy listened very attentively to the whole. He was very far from understanding the meaning of several of the verses, but the bounding expression of confidence and hope he did understand, and did feel.

"Happy to be so deluded!" he thought. "I almost wish I could share the delusion!"

He was gloomily silent when she had done, and little Fleda's eyes were so full that it was a little while before she could look towards him, and ask in her gentle way, "Do you like it, Mr. Carleton?"

She was gratified by his grave "Yes!"

"But Elfie," said he, smiling again, "you have not told me your thoughts yet. What had these verses to do with the sea you were looking at so hard?"

"Nothing; I was thinking," said Fleda, slowly, "that the sea seemed something like the world ? I don't mean it was like, but it made me think of it; and I thought how pleasant it is to know that G.o.d takes care of his people."

"Don't he take care of everybody?"

"Yes, in one sort of way," said Fleda; "but then it is only his children that he has promised to keep from everything that will hurt them."

"I don't see how that promise is kept, Elfie. I think those who call themselves so meet with as many troubles as the rest of the world, and perhaps more."

"Yes," said Fleda, quickly, "they have troubles, but then G.o.d wont let the troubles do them any harm."

A subtle evasion, thought Mr. Carleton. "Where did you learn that, Elfie?"

"The Bible says so," said Fleda.

"Well, how do you know it from that?" said Mr. Carleton, impelled, he hardly knew whether by his bad or his good angel, to carry on the conversation.

"Why," said Fleda, looking as if it were a very simple question, and Mr. Carleton were catechising her, "you know, Mr. Carleton, the Bible was written by men who were taught by G.o.d exactly what to say, so there could be nothing in it that is not true."

"How do you know those men were so taught?"

"The Bible says so."

A child's answer! but with a child's wisdom in it, not learnt of the schools. "He that is of G.o.d heareth G.o.d's words." To little Fleda, as to every simple and humble intelligence, the Bible proved itself; she had no need to go further.

Mr. Carleton did not smile, for nothing would have tempted him to hurt her feelings; but he said, though conscience did not let him do it without a twinge, ?

"But don't you know, Elfie, there are some people who do not believe the Bible?"

"Ah, but those are bad people," replied Fleda, quickly; "all good people believe it."

A child's reason again, but hitting the mark this time.

Unconsciously, little Fleda had brought forward a strong argument for her cause. Mr. Carleton felt it, and rising up, that he might not be obliged to say anything more, he began to pace slowly up and down the deck, turning the matter over.

Was it so? that there were hardly any good men (he thought there might be a few), who did not believe in the Bible and uphold its authority? and that all the worst portion of society was comprehended in the other cla.s.s? ? and if so, how had he overlooked it? He had reasoned most unphilosophically, from a few solitary instances that had come under his own eye; but applying the broad principle of induction, it could not be doubted that the Bible was on the side of all that is sound, healthful, and hopeful, in this disordered world. And whatever might be the character of a few exceptions, it was not supposable that a wide system of hypocrisy should tell universally for the best interests of mankind. Summoning history to produce her witnesses, as he went on with his walk up and down, he saw with increasing interest, what he had never seen before, that the Bible had come like the breath of spring upon the moral waste of mind; that the ice-bound intellect and cold heart of the world had waked into life under its kindly influence, and that all the rich growth of the one and the other had come forth at its bidding. And except in that sun-lightened tract, the world was and had been a waste indeed. Doubtless, in that waste, intellect had at different times put forth sundry barren shoots, such as a vigorous plant can make in the absence of the sun, but also like them immature, unsound, and groping vainly after the light in which alone they could expand and perfect themselves; ripening no seed for a future and richer growth. And flowers the wilderness had none. The affections were stunted and overgrown.

All this was so ? how had he overlooked it? His unbelief had come from a thoughtless, ignorant, one-sided view of life and human things. The disorder and ruin which he saw, where he did not also see the adjusting hand at work, had led him to refuse his credit to the Supreme Fabricator. He thought the waste would never be reclaimed, and did not know how much it already owed to the sun of revelation; but what was the waste where that light had not been! Mr. Carleton was staggered. He did not know what to think. He began to think he had been a fool.

Poor little Fleda was meditating less agreeably the while.

With the sure tact of truth, she had discerned that there was more than jest in the questions that had been put to her. She almost feared that Mr. Carleton shared himself the doubts he had so lightly spoken of, and the thought gave her great distress. However, when he came to take her down to tea, with all his usual manner, Fleda's earnest look at him ended in the conviction that there was. nothing very wrong under that face.

For several days, Mr. Carleton pondered the matter of this evening's conversation, characteristically restless till he had made up his mind. He wished very much to draw Fleda to speak further upon the subject, but it was not easy; she never led to it. He sought in vain an opportunity to bring it in easily, and at last resolved to make one..

"Elfie," said he, one morning, when all the rest of the pa.s.sengers were happily engaged at a distance with the letter- bags ? "I wish you would let me hear that favourite hymn of yours again; l like it very much."

Fleda was much gratified, and immediately with great satisfaction repeated the hymn. Its peculiar beauty struck him yet more the second time than the first.

"Do you understand those two last verses?" said he, when she had done.

Fleda said "Yes!" rather surprised.

"I do not," he said, gravely.

Fleda paused a minute or two, and then finding that it depended on her to enlighten him, said in her modest way, ?

"Why, it means that we have no goodness of our own, and only expect to be forgiven, and taken to heaven, for the Saviour's sake."

Mr. Carleton asked, "How _for his sake?_"

"Why, you know, Mr. Carleton, we don't deserve to go there, and if we are forgiven at all, it must be for what He has done."

"And what is that, Elfie?"

"He died for us," said Fleda, with a look of some anxiety into Mr. Carleton's face.