Chapter VI: Hope

"ALAS!" sighed Norah, "what a grievous pity it was that you had not gone up to the house at once. The good, kind gentleman would have helped you; you might never have had your fever, never have lost your sight."

"Don't you think that has come to my mind a thousand times?" cried Sophy, with a passionate burst of grief. "There was something which that gentleman said as he carried me into the house, that, whenever I think of it now, is like vinegar poured on a wound. 'Why did you not come to me?' he asked. I could not answer him then, I can't now answer that question even to myself. I must have been mad to have stayed out there in the darkness and rain, without so much as trying whether there might not be some one who would have mercy even on me."

Persis could keep silence no longer. "Oh, my poor young friend!" she exclaimed, "are you not doing the same thing now?—are you not remaining broken-hearted in the outer gloom of despair, when there is One waiting to be gracious—One stretching out His pierced hands with the invitation of love, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'" *

* Matthew xi. 28.

"It is too late to come," replied Sophy; "I had my day of hope, and it is past."

"Oh, say not so!" cried Persis, with trembling earnestness, while Norah wept in silence. "It is Satan who, having led you into evil, would now drive you to despair; it is Satan who first bids us put off repentance, and then tells us that repentance is too late. Was it too late for the thief who hung beside our Lord on the cross? Conscience upbraided him, man despised him, his own fellow-creatures judged him unfit to live; he had lost his character, he had forfeited his life, he was suffering the agonies of the cross; but even amid those agonies the dying thief turned towards the Saviour, whose 'blood cleanseth from all sin,' * he threw himself on the mercy of Christ; he confessed his own utter vileness; he believed, repented, and was saved. The gates of a blessed paradise, which opened for the Lord of Glory, received also the penitent thief. If he found mercy, who shall despair? Oh come, come to the Saviour!"

* 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. 1 John i. 7.

"Will He take me from this hateful place?" said Sophy, bitterly; "will He give me back my sight and my father?"

"The Lord will do far more," replied Persis, "for those who love and trust Him. He will take them 'from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God'; * He will open their eyes to see His love, and will fulfil to them His gracious promise—'I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.'" †

"That promise is not for me," said Sophy Puller, with a sigh of despair.

"And why not for you?" cried Persis, in her earnestness pressing the hand of the miserable girl between both her own. "You have tried the broad path, you have found it to be a path of disappointment and anguish; the Lord is pleading with you now, 'turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?'‡ You have served Satan, and found him to be a hard master; the Lord is able, willing to redeem you, and set you free! 'The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God'—Oh! Mark the word, the GIFT, not purchased, not earned, not deserved—'the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'" §

* Rom. viii. 2, 21. † 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.
‡ Ezekiel xxxiii. 11. § Rom. vi. 23.

"Do you mean to say," asked Sophy, abruptly, "that the good and the bad all go to Heaven alike?"

"Who are 'the good?'" asked Persis; "'there is none good but One, that is God.' * If our 'hope of salvation' rested on any merit of our own, it would be a hope indeed built on a trembling quicksand."

"Then what is our hope?" cried Sophy.

"Our hope is simply this," answered Persis; "'Christ died for the ungodly' † The greatest saint has no other plea, the greatest sinner may use it. Salvation is the purchase of Christ's blood; it is freely offered to all; they alone perish who reject it, and choose to continue in sin, rather than cast themselves, in humble faith, on the mercy of a pardoning Saviour!"

Sophy's bosom heaved convulsively; large drops rose in her dim eyes; she did not speak for some moments, and then it was between broken gasps, most painful to hear.

"I cannot believe that heaven can ever be opened to me! No—I shall be shut out, when those who love God pass in; when Norah and those I have known pass in to the light, and the glory, and the joy, I shall be lying in outer darkness, as I did by that rich man's door!"

* Matt. xix. 17. † Rom. v. 6.

"Oh! No, no!" exclaimed Norah, in a voice broken by sobs, "you will knock now—now—it is not too late! Did not the Lord Himself say—'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out?'" *

"Yes, knock by prayer," joined in Persis, "cry, 'God be merciful to me—a sinner!' Lay yourself with all your sins and your sorrows at the foot of the cross, 'looking unto Jesus' † in whom alone we can have forgiveness, who is our Salvation and our only Hope!"

Sophy Puller could not reply, but she sank on her knees and sobbed while her friends prayed beside her. The first faint dawn of comfort had risen upon her deep darkness. Persis hoped that she was weeping as the penitent wept who washed our Lord's feet with her tears. But who can look into the heart of another? How often are we deceived even by our own! It is only the after-life that shows whether repentance has been really deep and sincere, or whether it has been like the morning cloud, and the dew that passes away.

* John vi. 37. † Heb. xii. 2.

Persis and Norah remained with Sophy as long as the rules of the workhouse permitted, and the short winter's day was already ending before they took their departure.

As Norah bade her poor friend farewell, she whispered, pressing Sophy's hand as she spoke, "You will not despair now, dear one? You have hope, oh! Say that you have hope! It is not all darkness now?"

Sophy drew a deep sigh. "If I had only you beside me to teach me to pray—"

"There is One who can teach you better, far better than any mortal can," said Persis, whose ear had caught the last words; "say, as the disciples said—'Lord, teach me to pray;' and with David, 'create in me a clean heart, oh God! and renew a right spirit within me!' * It is the Holy Spirit who guides back our wandering feet, who leads us to the merciful Saviour, who bids us look up to Him who was wounded for our transgressions, and in the thought of His perfect sacrifice, His boundless pity and love, find rest for our aching hearts, hope for our trembling souls."

* Psalm li.10.