Part 21 (1/2)

”And he laid down his life for us,” said Mrs. Landreth. ”And he himself said, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.'”

”Yes, that is the test,” said Mr. Dinsmore; ”we have no right to consider ourselves his disciples unless we are striving earnestly to keep all his commandments. He himself said, 'Either make the tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for a tree is known by his fruit.'”

”Yes; if we love our Father we will strive earnestly to keep his commandments and not feel them to be grievous. A loving child is an obedient one,” said Mr. Keith. ”'For this is the love of G.o.d, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.'”

”'G.o.d commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,'” quoted his son Donald. ”In his love and in his pity he redeemed us.”

Then there was a moment's pause, presently broken by Mr. Dinsmore starting the hymn ”Love divine, all love excelling,” in which the other voices promptly joined.

That closed the exercises for that time, and those who had come merely to take part in them bade good-bye for that day with the expectation of returning on the following one. And those who remained behind scattered to their rooms until the summons of the tea bell brought them together again about the table, to partake of their evening meal; after which they repaired to the veranda and spent in conversation and music, suited to its sacredness, the closing hours of that Lord's day.

Captain Raymond and his wife lingered for a little upon the veranda after their guests had gone to their rooms. They sat side by side--he with his arm about her waist, her hand fast clasped in his, while her head rested upon his shoulder and her eyes looked up lovingly into his face.

”My dear,” she said softly and with a beautiful smile, ”I am so happy. I love you so, so devotedly, and am so sure that your love for me is equally strong.”

”I think it is, my darling--light of my eyes and core of my heart,” he responded low and feelingly. ”You are to me the dearest, sweetest, loveliest of earthly creatures. I can never cease wondering at my great good fortune in securing such a treasure for my own. I am rich, rich in love. My children are all very near and dear to me, and I know and feel that I am to them, but you--ah, I think you are dearer than all five of them put together!”

”Ah,” she said with a joyous smile, ”those are sweet, sweet words to me!

And yet they make me feel almost as if I had robbed them--your children.

They all love you so dearly, as you have said, and set so high a value upon your love to them.”

”And it is very great: none the less because my love for you is still greater. You, my dear wife, are my second self--'bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.' It is right that our mutual love should exceed all other earthly loves.”

”Yes; and yet I fear it would make Lu--perhaps Gracie also--unhappy to know that you have greater love for anyone else than for them.”

”I think they do know it, and also that it is right that it should be so. And I presume they will both some day love someone else better than their father. I cannot blame them if they do.”

”Perhaps the love differs more in kind than degree,” Violet said presently.

”Yes; there is something in that,” he returned; ”yet it is not altogether that which satisfies me. We are all bidden to love one another. 'Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it.... So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.... Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself.'”

He paused and Violet finished the quotation.

”'And the wife see that she reverence her husband.' Ah, it is easy for me to do that with such a husband as mine,” she added. ”Also, I remember that in Paul's epistle to t.i.tus there is a pa.s.sage, where the aged women are bidden to teach the younger ones to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. And in the next verse to be obedient to their husbands. I think I have kept that command as far as I could without getting any orders from mine,” she concluded, smiling up into his eyes.

”Yes, indeed, dearest,” he said, returning the smile and drawing her closer to his side with a fond gesture, ”where one's slightest wish is promptly and eagerly complied with a command would be altogether superfluous. And though I consider it wise and right--yes, an unquestionable duty to exact prompt, cheerful obedience from my children, I do not think I should ask it of my wife. The women of the apostle's day were not the educated, self-reliant ones of the present time; therefore our wives are hardly to be expected to conform themselves strictly to the rules he lays down for them. But if husband and wife love each other as they ought,--as you and I do, for instance,--any friction between them will be a thing of rare occurrence.”

”And when, if ever, there is any,” said Violet, ”I think the wife should be the one to give way--unless she feels that to yield to the wishes of her husband would be a breach of the moral law; but in that case she must remember the answer of Peter to the high priest, 'We ought to obey G.o.d rather than men.'”

”Yes,” he said; ”and when a parent commands something which is plainly contrary to G.o.d's command,--lying or stealing for instance,--it is the child's duty to refuse to obey. There are parents, alas! who do train their children to vice and crime, and when that is the case they, the children, must remember and act upon the teaching of the apostle, 'We ought to obey G.o.d rather than men.'”

”How I pity children who are placed in such circ.u.mstances,” sighed Violet. ”Oh, I often think what a cause for grat.i.tude I have in the fact that my parents were earnest Christians, and brought me and all their children up in the fear of G.o.d; also that my children have an earnest, devoted Christian for their father.”

”And for their mother, my sweet wife,” he added with emotion.

Neither spoke again for some moments. It was Violet who broke the silence.

”My dear,” she said, ”I wonder if you have noticed, as I have, that my cousin Donald greatly admires our Lu.”