Part 41 (2/2)
”Oh, with G.o.d, undoubtedly!” said Clare shyly.
”It seemeth me,” said Eunice, knitting her brows a little, ”there be three questions the which your heart may ask himself touching your work.
_Wherefore_ do I this? You will very like say, Because you be bidden.
Good. But then--_How_ do I this?--is it in the most excellent way I can? And yet again, _For whom_ do I this? That last lieth deepest of all.”
”Why, I do it for my mother and Aunt Rachel,” said Clare innocently.
”Good. But wherefore not, henceforward, do it for G.o.d?”
”For G.o.d, Mistress Eunice!”
”'Tis the true touchstone of greatness. Nought can be little that a man doth for G.o.d; like as nought can be great that a man doth but for himself.”
”Lysken can work for G.o.d,” said Clare thoughtfully; ”but I, who do but draw needles in and out--”
”Cannot draw them for G.o.d? Nay, but Paul thought not so. He biddeth you 'whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do _all_ to the glory of G.o.d.' But mind you, only the very best work is to His glory: that is to say, only _your_ very best. He measures not Mall's work by Jane's, but he looketh at the power of both, and judgeth if they have wrought their best or no. Jane may have finished the better piece of work, but if Mall have wrought to her utmost, and Jane not so, then Mall's work shall take first rank, and Jane's must fall behind.”
”That is a new thought unto me, Mistress Eunice--that I can do such work for G.o.d. I did indeed account that I could be patient under the same, for to please Him: and I could have thought that the saving of a child from drowning, or the leading of a s.h.i.+p to battle, and so forth, might be done as unto G.o.d: but to cut and sew and measure!”
”I would 'twere not a new thought to many another,” answered Eunice.
”But I guess we can sew well or ill; and we can cut carefully or carelessly; and we can measure truly or untruly. Truth is no little matter, Mistress Clare; neither is diligence; nor yet a real, honest, hearty endeavouring of one's self to please the Lord, who hath given us our work, in every little thing. Moreover, give me leave to tell you,-- you may be set a great work, and you may fail to see the greatness thereof. I mind me, when I was something younger than you be, and my brother Hal was but a little child, he fell into sore danger, and should belike have been killed, had none stretched out hand to save him. Well, as the Lord in His mercy would have it, I saw his peril, and I ran and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the child in the very nick of time. There was but an half-minute to do it. And at afterward, men praised me, and said I had done a great thing. But think you it bare the face of a great thing to me, as I was in the doing thereof? Never a whit. I ne'er tarried to think if it were a great thing or a small: I thought neither of me nor of my doing, but alonely of our Hal, and how to set him in safety. They said it was a great matter, sith I had risked mine own life. But, dear heart! I knew not that I risked aught--I ne'er thought once thereon.
Had I known it, I would have done the same, G.o.d helping me: but I knew it not. Now, whether was this a great thing or a small?”
”I have no doubt to say, a great.”
”Maybe, Mistress Clare, when you and I shall stand--as I pray G.o.d we may!--among the sheep at the right hand of Christ our Saviour,--when the books be opened, and the dead judged according to that which is written of them,--He may pick out some little petty deed (to our eyes), and may say thereof, This was a great thing in My sight. And it may be, too, that the deeds we counted great He shall pa.s.s by without any mention.
Dear heart, let us do the small deeds to our utmost, and the great are sure to follow. 'He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.' And you know what He saith touching that poor cup of cold water, which a.s.suredly is but a right small thing to give.
Think you, if the Queen's Highness were pa.s.sing here but now, and should drop her glove, and you picked up the same and offered it to Her Grace,--should you e'er forget it? I trow not. Yet what a petty matter--to pick up a dropped glove! 'Ah, but,' say you, 'It was the Queen's glove--that wrought the difference.' Verily so. Then set the like gilding upon your petty deeds. It is the King's work. You have wrought for the King. Your guerdon is His smile--is it not enough?--and your home shall be within His house for ever.”
”Ay!” said Clare, drawing a long sigh--not of care: ”it is enough, Mistress Eunice.”
”And He hath no lack of our work,” added Eunice softly. ”It is _given_ to us to do, like as it was given unto Peter and John to suffer.
Methinks he were neither a good child nor a thankful, that should refuse to stretch forth hand for his Father's gift.”
Note 1. I have not been able to ascertain the true date of Underhill's death, but he was living on the 6th of March 1568. (Rot. Pat., 10 Elizabeth, Part Two.)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
GENTLEMAN JACK.
”He is transformed, And grown a gallant of the last edition.”
_Ma.s.singer_.
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