Chapter IV

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

THE Sabbath dawned upon the village of E—, the day which the Lord has appointed for His own, that day which, when kept holy to religion and rest, leaves an especial blessing behind it. About two hours before the time for attending morning service, Viner took his little Bible in his hand, and walked with his daughter to the sea-beach, where, seated on a shelving shingle, with the wide ocean heaving and sparkling before them, they enjoyed together a quiet time for reading and speaking of the things of God.

On their return, to their utmost surprise, they found the shop open, the shutters down, and Walter placing some vegetables on the board.

"O father!" exclaimed Nelly, "Has Walter forgotten what day it is?"

"What are you doing?" said Viner, as he entered. "My shop always is closed upon Sundays; I thought that I had mentioned this to you before."

"Yes," replied the boy, "you did so, but look there!" And he pointed to the tempting display in Goldie's window. "Is he to have all the custom and the cash, he who is ten times richer than you are!"

"What he has—what he does is no excuse for me; it is not for him that I must answer before God. Put up those shutters again, Walter."

Walter obeyed sullenly, with a look which told that he was not at all convinced of the wisdom of the order. Viner then drew him into the shop, and said, "Is not one of the Ten Commandments, given from the mouth of the Lord God Himself amid the flames and thunder of Mount Sinai, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day; in it thou shalt do no manner of work'?"

Walter nodded assent.

"Is there not a blessing for those who obey this command? Look here," said Viner, opening his Bible, and pointing to these words from the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

"That may have been so once, but I don't believe that it is so now," said Walter.

"God knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning, He is 'the same yesterday, to-day, and forever!'"

"I only know," muttered Walter, "that the way in which you go on is the way to starve."

"Do you believe that our Heavenly Father ever suffers any one to starve for obeying His commandment?"

"I can't tell," replied Walter, still rather surlily.

"Do you believe that He, to whom all the treasures of earth and heaven belong, who created the world and every living thing upon it, is able to provide for our wants?"

"I believe that the Almighty is able."

"But you doubt that He is willing?"

Walter was silent.

"I must speak to you again from His Word, that Word which can never be broken." Viner turned to the thirty-third Psalm and read—"'Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.' Again, in the thirty-seventh Psalm it is written—'Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. A little that the righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.'"

"Oh! Remember the word of the Lord Jesus Christ—'Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things; but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' Walter, God will more than make up to us for all that we may lose for His sake!"

"You'll never convince him! You'll never convince him!" cried Goldie, who, passing the shop, had overheard the last words, and now stood leaning his stout person upon Viner's little gate. "You can't persuade him but that I am growing rich, and that you are growing poor; that I am getting on, you going back in the world. All your preaching won't shut his eyes to that. Why, here am I able to send my son to a first-rate school, able (I grant that it's a hard pull on my purse, but yet somehow I can manage it) to place him with an engineer, where, with talents like his, he is pretty sure at last to make his fortune! I shall see him one of these days riding in his own carriage, for I have let no idle fancies, no silly superstition, prevent me from doing the best for my family, and that is the way to grow rich."

"'The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow thereto,'" murmured Nelly.

Viner turned and smiled on his daughter.

"I wonder that you don't think of your child," said Goldie, "if you don't care about starving yourself."

"I do think of her," said the father earnestly, "and in obeying and trusting my God, I feel that I am doing the best thing for her both in this world and the next."

"We shall see," said Goldie as he walked away.

"Yes, we shall see," repeated Viner quietly.

"Do you really think," asked Walter, as soon as the fruiterer was beyond hearing, "that God would be angry with you just for selling upon Sunday when He knows that you are so poor?"

"When a parent gives a command, is he content that it should be disobeyed? When a friend makes a promise, is he content that it should not be believed? When a king passes a law, is he content that it should be broken?"

"Ah! But this law may be easy for the rich, but it is so very, very hard for the poor!"

"Is it hard," replied Viner gently, "that we should give up something for Him who has given us all? Let us remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes, He became poor! He was rich, indeed, for the Son of God sat on the throne of heaven; He became poor indeed, for the Son of Man had not where to lay His head! 'He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin; and inasmuch as He suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.' He knows—He feels for our trials!"

"The faith of His early followers was far more severely tried than ours. They had to endure not only want, but tortures, mockings, cruel deaths, for the sake of the Master whom they loved. And do you think that any martyr at the stake then, or any saint on his death-bed now, thought or thinks that he has done or given up too much for the Saviour who gave His life for him?"

"Oh no!" exclaimed Nelly, "Never! Only think of the glory and the crown! It is better to walk barefoot on a thorny way, and know that we will come to a kingdom at the end of our journey, and be happy for ever and ever, than to roll along in a golden carriage, and to feel that every minute brings us nearer and nearer to misery that never will end! We never can be really happy but when we do God's will like the angels!"

"How do the angels do God's will?" said Viner.

The child paused a moment to think, then replied, "Faithfully, readily, joyfully."

"But the angels have not to suffer God's will as well as to do it," observed Walter.

"No," replied Viner, "in this, man alone has the honour of following the steps of his Lord! We only are able, in this our short life, to imitate Him who in agony prayed, 'Not my will but Thine be done!'"

Walter had nothing to answer; he remained silent, though scarcely convinced. The convict's son could not feel the full force of the Scripture:

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and
lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Nor knew he yet how much is comprised in the prayer:

"THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!"