"I am afraid that wilful neglect of anything which we are bidden, in the Bible, to do is sin, a sin of omission," said Maude. "We are apt to think little of such sins; and if we abstain to a certain degree from doing what we ought not to do, we are seldom much troubled by the conviction that we have left undone that which we ought to have done. But God's Word teaches a different lesson. The barren fig tree cumbered the ground, not because it brought forth bad fruit, but because it bore no fruit at all. The man with one talent was reproved, not because he had misspent the money, but because he had not used it for good." "In our Lord's own account of the Judgment, He tells us not of the sentence which will be passed upon those who have injured, robbed, or murdered His poor; but that which awaits those who have neglected to help them. This shews us most clearly that God marks our sins of omission. I would not have ventured thus to speak to you, my friends," continued the young officer earnestly, "had I not feared that, almost without knowing it, you might be committing this sin by neglecting an ordinance of God. I own that I have often myself thus offended by leaving known duties undone, and from the bottom of my heart I join in the dying prayer of Archbishop Usher, 'Oh! God, forgive me my sins, especially my sins of omission!'" "Amen!" murmured the old labourer, and his wife, as she folded her wrinkled hands, faintly echoed the "Amen." "And once more I ask your pardon for having spoken thus freely," said Harry Maude, holding out his hand to Garth with cordial frankness of manner. "But I had it on my heart to entreat you not to miss a blessing by neglecting a duty, and turning away from a service of obedience, of hope, and of joy. Every loyal subject of the Lord, when of ripe years, is invited to the Table of his Heavenly King, and it is his blessed privilege as well as his bounden duty to appear there as a thankful guest, looking forward to the time when he, through Christ's merits and death, shall be welcomed to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the glorious feast in the Kingdom of Heaven." CHAPTER V. A Service of Love. HARRY MAUDE quitted the cottage, and Michael and Martha returned to their occupations, the one digging in the garden, the other mending stockings by the fireside. But the old man bending over his spade, and his good wife over her needle, were both reflecting on what they had heard. "To think of his taking us to task like that! But he meant it kindly—yes, he meant it kindly," murmured Martha to herself as she darned. "He'd not have us treat our great and merciful God as we would never dare to treat our Queen. We've been a-shutting ourselves out from the feast in church; I pray God He mayn't shut us out from the Feast up above." But though Michael and Martha thus pondered over the subject, neither of them felt inclined to talk about it.