Family Pride; Or, Purified by SufferingHolmes, Mary Jane
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Family Pride; Or, Purified by Suffering
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction; Dime novels
Bowing her head upon her hands, poor Katy whispered sadly: "God must not
take my baby. Oh, Morris, please pray that he will not. He will hear and
answer you, while I have been so bad I cannot pray. But I'm not going to
be bad again. If he will let me keep my darling I will begin a new life.
I will try to serve him. Dear Lord, hear and answer, and not let baby
die."
She was praying herself now, and Morris' broad chest heaved as he
glanced at her kneeling figure, and then at the death-like face upon
the pillow, with the pinched look about the nose and lips, which to his
practiced eye was a harbinger of death.
"Its father should be here," he thought, and when Katy lifted up her
head again he asked if she was sure her husband had not yet returned
from Minnesota.
"Yes, sure--that is, I think he has not," was Katy's answer, a chill
creeping over her at the thought of meeting Wilford, and giving him his
daughter dead.
"I shall telegraph in the morning at all events," Morris continued,
"and if he is not in New York, it will be forwarded."
"Yes, that will be best," was the reply, spoken so mournfully that
Morris stopped in front of Katy, trying to reason with her.
But Katy would not listen, only answering to him that he did not know,
he could not feel, he never had been tried.
"Perhaps not," Morris said; "but Heaven is my witness, Katy, that if I
could save you this pain by giving up my life for baby's, I would do it
willingly; but God does not give us our choice. He knoweth what is best,
and baby is better with Him than us."
For a moment Katy was silent, then, as a new idea took possession of her
mind, she sprang to Morris' side and seizing his arm, demanded: "Can an
unbaptized child be saved?"
"We nowhere read that baptism is a saving ordinance," was Morris'
answer; while Katy continued: "But do you believe they will be saved?"
"Yes, I do," was the decided response, which, however, did not ease
Katy's mind, and she moaned on: "A child of heathen parents may, but I
knew better, I knew it was my duty to give the child to God, and for a
foolish fancy withheld the gift until it is too late, and God will take
it without the mark upon its forehead, the water on its brow. Oh, baby,
baby, if she should be lost--no name, no mark, no baptismal sign."
"Not water, but the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin," Morris said,
"and as sure as he died so sure this little one is safe. Besides that,
there may be time for the baptism yet--that is, to-morrow. Baby will not
die to-night, and if you like, it still shall have a name."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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