Frederica and her Guardians; Or, The Perils of Orphanhood — John Shaqi
Frederica and her Guardians; Or, The Perils of OrphanhoodRobertson, Margaret M. (Margaret Murray)
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Frederica and her Guardians; Or, The Perils of Orphanhood
Robertson, Margaret M. (Margaret Murray)
Orphans -- Fiction
"And is that all? I think I could manage to do all that, except perhaps
to love my neighbour as myself," said she, thinking of Prickly Polly.
"But you would need to do that too, I doubt," said Eppie, not wishing to
make religion seem a thing too easy. "And you would need to say your
prayers, for the best of us need to be forgiven, and the strongest and
wisest need to be helped and guided, and the Lord is good."
"And if I don't know very well at first. He will help me. But, Eppie
dear, I think Miss Baines must have had something more than this. I
wish I had asked her about it," said Frederica, regarding the old woman
with wistful eyes.
"Dear me, lassie," said Eppie, at a loss what to say to her; "what has
putten such like thoughts into your head? you are not an ill bairn, and
you will learn as you grow older. You have no call to vex yourself with
such thoughts more than usual."
"But, Eppie, it is for mama. She is ill, and suffers a great deal, and
she has only Selina with her; and if I only knew what made Miss Baines
so happy, I could tell mama. But mama could not begin at the beginning,
and go to church, and visit poor and sick people. There must be some
other away for her. For, Eppie, I am almost sure that mama would be
afraid to die."
There were no tears in the great wistful eyes turned towards her, but
there was something which the old woman found it quite as hard to meet.
"Poor body," murmured she; "the Lord help her!"
"And, Eppie, Miss Baines said something about the Lord Jesus caring for
her. And He died, you know. It is in the service, `Crucified, dead,
and buried,' and in the Bible there is something about it."
"Surely," said Eppie, eagerly, "that is just it. We are sinners, both
by Adam's fall and by actual transgression. And God sent His Son to die
in our room and stead. And we must lippen to Him. He will save us."
"And it would not make any difference because mama is a Jewess, would
it?"
"Preserve us a'! What will the lassie say next?" muttered the
bewildered Eppie. "No difference but what would be in her favour, I
would think. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, the Word says,
and the apostles were bidden begin at Jerusalem," said she, the
long-forgotten words coming back to her in the exigency of the moment.
"And they are all to be gathered in, Paul says. I mind weel my father
and our minister ay used to pray for the ingathering of the Jews. No,
I'm sure it would be in her favour rather than the contrary," repeated
Eppie confidently, growing more assured as she went on. "They were a
grand people, the Jews--God's own chosen people. They did ill things.
They killed our Lord, and I canna just reconcile it all, but I'm sure
the Lord loves them yet."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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