"Besides," Mr. Fuller continued, "what notion of the simple grandeur of
God can she have when she never had more than a peep of the sky from
between these wretched houses? How can the heavens declare the glory
of God to her? You don't suppose David understood astronomy, and that
it was from a scientific point of view that he spoke, when he said
that the firmament showed his handiwork? That was all he could say
about it, for the Jewish nation was not yet able to produce a Ruskin.
But it was, nevertheless, the spiritual power of the sky upon his
soul--not the stars in their courses, but the stars up there in their
reposeful depth of blue, their 'shining nest'--which, whatever theory
of their construction he might have, yet impressed him with an awe, an
infinitude, a shrinking and yet aspiring--made his heart swell within
him, and sent him down on his knees. This little darling knows nothing
of such an experience. We must get her into the open. She must love
the wind that bloweth where it listeth, and the clouds that change and
pass. She can't even like anything that does not last forever; and the
mind needs a perishing bread sometimes as well as the body--though it
never perishes when once made use of, as Mattie told me yesterday. But
I beg your pardon; I am preaching a sermon, I think. What a thing it is
to have the faults of a profession in addition to those of humanity! It
all comes to this--you must get that child, with her big head and her
big conscience, out of London, and give her heart a chance."
"Indeed, I wish I could," answered Lucy. "I will do what I can, and
let you know. Are you going to see her now, Mr. Fuller?"
"Yes, I am. I took her a flower yesterday, but I have brought her a
poem to-day. I am afraid, however, that it is not quite the thing for
her. I thought I could easily find her one till I began to try, and
then I found it very difficult indeed."
They parted--Lucy to Mrs. Morgenstern's, Mr. Fuller to Mattie.
I will give the hymn--for the sake, in part, of what Mattie said, and
then I will close the chapter.
"Come unto me," the Master says.
But how? I am not good;
No thankful song my heart will raise,
Nor even wish it could.
I am not sorry for the past,
Nor able not to sin;
The weary strife would ever last
If once I should begin.
Hast thou no burden then to bear?
No action to repent?
Is all around so very fair?
Is thy heart quite content?
Hast thou no sickness in thy soul?
No labor to endure?
Then go in peace, for thou art whole,
Thou needest not His cure.
Ah! mock me not. Sometimes I sigh;
I have a nameless grief,
A faint, sad pain--but such that I
Can look for no relief.
Come then to Him who made thy heart;
Come in thyself distrest;
To come to Jesus is thy part,
His part to give thee rest.
New grief, new hope He will bestow,
Thy grief and pain to quell;
Into thy heart Himself will go,
And that will make thee well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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