Read Ebook: Twilight stories by Shaw Catharine

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Ebook has 861 lines and 24653 words, and 18 pages

"But at the end of a year, she paid her friends there a visit; and when she was hearing all the news, one of them said, 'You remember Lizzie, who was such a naughty girl? Well, she is totally changed. Instead of being the most tiresome, she is the brightest of all the little Christians!"

"Then the mistress took heart, and remembered how she had said, 'Christ knows'?"

"Yes, dears, He knows His sheep, and they follow Him. And in proportion to our realising that He knows, so shall we be strong to follow Him closely!"

"That's very nice," said Tom. "Thank you, Auntie."

"Another day we will have 'following,' for I think it will help us."

They looked up gratefully. They did want to learn more of Christ, and this dear Aunt Ruth had learned in His School, and could help them because she had been close to Him herself.

FOLLOWING.

"WHAT are you looking at, Auntie?" The children crowded out of the French window, and stood on the verandah by her side, the stars and the deep twilight sky sending a sort of thrill to their hearts.

"I was watching that old woman and her grandson on their way home. What do you think I heard the boy say as he passed the hedge?"

"What?" asked Rose, curiously. Auntie always had something pleasant to say.

"'I can't see the way, grannie, it's so dark!' he complained; and then a gentle voice came out of the gloom, and I heard these words: 'If you keep close behind, and follow me, we shall soon get into the light!'"

"And I thought, children, that here was our promised twilight talk about 'following' all ready to our hand!"

"Now it seems to me that little Ted Jones is a picture of us."

"There are often places in our everyday lives which are dark and mysterious to us ignorant ones; sorrows, or trials, misunderstandings, difficulties, sins, temptations--you can all put your own special difficulty into the story, and call it 'darkness.' The question often comes to each of us, how are we to get out of this dilemma, or this difficulty, or this bad temper, or temptation?"

"I know well that it seems very real and large and overwhelming to us. But the Lord Jesus bids us follow Him closely, assuring us with tenderness that is wonderful, 'He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life!'"

"But," said Oswald, pressing closer to her side, "there are so many things that are so small, Auntie, and yet they worry you no end! Perhaps you've had a lesson to learn, and you've had a headache, or somebody has thrown you over, and made it ache, and so your lesson isn't half prepared, and you get up in the morning feeling that the world is dark and you cannot see any way out of the bother. Oh, there are heaps of things! That's only one! What can we do in such a case?"

There was a pause for an instant. Aunt Ruth was trying to put herself into Oswald's circumstances, and thinking how to bring her great Remedy down to his need. To make him understand that Jesus Christ is a remedy for all ills.

"I think," she said, slowly, "the best plan would be to go to God, our Father, and tell Him just how the difficulty came, and then ask Him definitely 'in the name of Jesus,' to make some way out of it--"

"And then?" asked Oswald, eagerly.

"Then I should do the next most obvious thing. Either look over the unfinished lesson if there is time, or go quietly into class if there isn't, and wait to see how God will help you. The answer may come in some very simple way, but if you look for it, it will surely come, and you must thank Him."

Oswald pressed her arm. Aunt Ruth was so comforting.

"Every one of us has our own special difficulty, and what is 'darkness' to Oswald may not appear at all bad to Tom!"

Tom could hear a smile in his Aunt's voice as she turned towards him.

"The timid child who hates to go upstairs after dusk, feels itself quite safe if father is in front! So little Ted Jones could not see the way to go, and he felt afraid in the dark lanes lest he was not going right. But grannie knew! She had been that way before too many times to mistake, and if little Ted would only keep close to her, and trust her, she would lead him safely home. Presently the cottage door would open, there would be a flood of light, and little Ted would be at home!"

"How nice!" said Jean, with her eyes shining in the darkness.

But Aunt Ruth was speaking again. "Jesus says 'He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, and whither I am, there shall My servant be!"

There was a moment's pause, and the children were looking up to the starlit sky.

"But, sometimes," said Tom, in a low voice, "the path seems difficult, and we lose sight of the Guide, perhaps, and cannot be sure He is there--"

"Yes," said Aunt Ruth, "I know that; but I think then the best way is to speak to our Guide. Tell Him we find the way rough and lonely, and ask Him by his Spirit to reveal His presence to us. As surely as we do, we shall get a comforting assurance that He is there; that He knows the way, that He has been through all our temptations, and that He is safely leading us Home! Oh, the rest of being sure that Jesus knows the way, children!"

"I suppose," said Rose, "that if we were more sure about Jesus we should not be half so afraid!"

"'Sure,'" echoed Tom; "how do you mean?"

"I mean," hesitated Rose, "that if we had more confidence in the way He was leading us we should be more satisfied with our circumstances--"

Rose had touched upon one of the great problems of life. The others did not know it, but Aunt Ruth did.

"Have I ever told you about the Alpine guide?" she asked suddenly.

"No, I think not," said Rose, wonderingly.

"When people want to make an ascent of a difficult mountain, the first thing they do is to secure the services of a guide."

"This guide must be thoroughly qualified, strong and reliable, have climbed that particular mountain many times before, and must be ready to undertake the charge of the traveller--"

"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Jean.

"And then, when the traveller and the guide have made the compact, the traveller gives himself over to do exactly as the guide says, doesn't he?"

"Of course he does," said Tom.

"And they start together, and the guide goes before in all the difficult places. He cares for the traveller; he holds him up; he assures him that he knows the way. As they mount higher, the guide cuts each step in the ice, and the traveller must put his foot where his guide's have been, with unquestioning faith: herein is his only safety."

"Will he grudge his confidence when the summit is reached, and they stand beneath the vault of heaven with nothing between?"

"So we, children, shall thank and praise our great Guide for His faithfulness, and shall know those words true by and bye--'He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life'!"

KEPT AT HOME.

TWO girls sat at a window in a cosy bedroom overlooking the snowy prospect; a bright fire burned in the grate, and a little table was spread with afternoon tea.

"I wish you could go out and skate, Mary!" said the elder of the two, laying a gentle hand on the other's white one, and looking in her face.

Mary shook her head with a little half-smile.

"I suppose I ought not to have said so," Dorothy went on, "for I expect it only makes you long the more--"

"No, it doesn't," said Mary. "You see, Dorothy, I'm willing, and that makes it so much easier."

"Easier to sit up there and mope, instead of going to parties, or skating, or even church? And then in front of you, perhaps, an operation in which you may lose your foot--"

And as she said the words, Dorothy buried her face on Mary's lap and gave a sob.

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