Domestic fiction; New England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"That was the poorest summer I ever had as to health. Jim's sickness
had run me down, and then I missed him dreadfully, but what really ailed
me was a heavy heart. I had lost my hope. I had been a Christian for a
good many years, or thought I had. I had joined the Church when I was
young, and had tried to live up to my profession, as far as I knew how.
I had enjoyed religion in a way, and got real help in trouble from my
Saviour. But that seemed all gone. I didn't enjoy it that summer, and
hadn't for a great while.
"I had thought all along that I was doing the best I could, and that I
did well to be angry with my husband's ways and to hate them. But Jim
had left it to me to help his father; and how was I to help him, when I
hated not only his ways but himself, as I began to fear? I hated his
greed, and his love of money, and his hardness, which had killed his
boys; and I couldn't separate the man from his sins, and yet I knew I
ought. I was all wrong for awhile, and I knew it, but I didn't know how
to put myself right.
"Time went on, and a little help came to me after awhile in a way I
never would have thought of. It was one Sunday. They had all gone to
meeting, and I was alone in the house; and I got my courage up to look
over Jim's box and the few things that were his very own. Among them I
found a little book, such as you've seen, that has a Bible verse for
every day of the year, and after each verse a few words to explain it,
or to send it home to the heart, and maybe a verse of a hymn after that.
I knew it the minute I saw it. It was one Myra had had when she was a
girl. It lay on her bureau always, and she read in it every night.
"She had given it to Jim. Their two names stood together on the first
page, and Jim had kept it safe all this time, as I believe, for my help.
For when I turned over the leaves, after awhile I found the text for
that day, and it was this: `Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, thy
King cometh unto thee! He is just, and having salvation.' And then,
among the words that came after to enforce the Scripture were these:
`However strong thine inward enemies, thy corruptions, fear not and be
not discouraged. Thy King is bound by His office, by His love, and by
His promises, to help thee with strength to overcome.'
"They do not sound much as I say them to you, do they?--but to me they
seemed to come like a voice from heaven. I had nothing to say for
myself. I had been all wrong for a great while. And I knew I could do
nothing now to put myself right. But, according to this, the King
Himself was `bound to help me with strength to overcome.' So I
said--`I'll just let go, and see what He'll do about it. He may guide
me where He will.' For I had lost my way; and if ever a poor soul knew
herself to be `helpless, and blind, and naked,' I did that day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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