Part 8 (2/2)
Clara expressed her thankfulness, and added, ”Pray let it be as simple as possible.”
”Oh yes, it shall be such as will become a quakeress if you wish it; I will lose no time about it,” said Mr Franklin, hurrying out of the room.
”Why, he has gone without taking anything to eat; he must be almost starving,” observed the general. ”I know that I am; and, my dear, I am afraid that you must be hungry, unless you took a late luncheon.”
”We had dinner at ten, though I took but little,” answered Clara; ”but we are accustomed to go a long time without food.”
”Your looks tell me that, my dear,” exclaimed the general, ringing the bell. ”We must take more care of you in future than you have received lately. I never knew starving enable a person the better to go through the duties of life.”
The waiter entered, and the general ordered luncheon to be brought up at once, in a tone which showed that he intended to be obeyed, adding, ”Let there be as many delicacies as your cook can provide off-hand.”
The lawyer had not returned when luncheon was placed on the table.
”Come, my dear, I want to see you do justice to some of these nice things,” said the general.
Poor Clara hesitated; it was a fast-day in the convent--could she at once transgress the rule? She was going to take simply some bread and preserve, but the general placed a cutlet on her plate. ”I must insist on your eating that, and taking a gla.s.s or two of good wine to give you strength for your journey to-morrow,” he said. Clara had to explain her difficulty. ”I know of no command of the Lord to fast,” he observed, ”though He stigmatised vain fasts and oblations. The apostles nowhere command it, and the early Christians, until error crept in among them, did not consider fasting a religious duty. In your case let me a.s.sure you that it would be a sin to fast when you require your strength restored. You have had much mental trial, and will have more to go through. The mind suffers with the body, and it is your duty to strengthen both. Come, come, eat up the cutlet, and take this gla.s.s of sherry.”
Clara obeyed, and in a wonderfully short time began to see matters in a brighter light. The general did not fail to explain that one of the great objects of the system from which he wished to emanc.i.p.ate her was that of weakening the minds of those it got into its toils to keep them in subjection. ”Such was their aim in insisting on confession, on fasting, and on vigils. What is even a strong man fit for, who is deprived of his sleep and half-starved? How completely does a man become the slave of the fellow mortal to whom he confides every secret of his heart! and how much more thoroughly must a weak woman become a slave, who is subjected to the same system! Add to that the rule of obedience which you tell me is so much insisted on. Obedience to whom?
to a woman as full of faults and weaknesses as other human beings. How sad must be the result! It is terrible to see the name of religion prost.i.tuted in such a cause.”
Clara ate up the cutlet without any further objection, and meekly submitted to take some of the other delicacies the general placed before her.
”You'll do, my dear,” he said, smiling; ”we shall have the roses in your cheeks again, I hope, in a few weeks. What I want you to do is to distinguish between G.o.d's and man's religions. You have erred from confounding the two. Our loving Father wants a joyous, willing obedience; He allows no one to come between Him and us poor sinners, but our one Mediator and great High Priest, to whom we must confess our sins. He invites us to come direct to Him in prayer. Those dishonour Him who fancy that either ministering angels or departed saints can interfere with our glorious privilege. He who said, 'Rend your heart, and not your garments,' desires no debasing penances, no fasts, nothing which could weaken the powers of the mind. When you come to look into the subject, you will see that all such practices were invented by the great enemy of souls to draw men off from their reliance on their loving Father, who is ever ready to give grace and help in time of need.”
Before luncheon was quite over Mr Franklin returned. ”You will excuse us for not waiting for you,” said the general. ”Miss Maynard was nearly starving.”
”I am glad you did not wait, indeed,” answered Mr Franklin, ”for I may compliment Miss Maynard on looking much better than she did an hour ago.
I have been entirely successful in my mission; my cousin and her milliner will be here in a few minutes. I have a message from my aunt, Mrs Lawson, who begs that you and Miss Maynard will stay the night at her house, as she can there make the arrangements about her dress with far more convenience than here.”
The general, without stopping to consult Clara, at once accepted the offer. Clara herself was thankful to move to a quiet house. Miss Lawson, who was a sensible girl, understanding Clara's position and feelings, with much thoughtfulness made every arrangement she could require. Having supplied her from her own wardrobe, she took away the conventual garments, which Mr Franklin with infinite satisfaction carefully packed up and sent with a note, couched in legal phraseology, to the Lady Superior, requesting that Miss Maynard's property might be sent back by return. ”I don't suppose we shall get it,” he remarked to his cousin; ”but it is as well to see what her ladys.h.i.+p has to say about the matter.”
Late in the evening a note arrived from the Lady Superior, who had to a.s.sure Mr Franklin that she possessed nothing belonging to Miss Maynard, who was well aware that any articles brought into the convent became the property of the community, and that all secular dresses were immediately disposed of as useless to those devoted to the service of the Church.
”I call it a perfect swindle,” observed Mrs Lawson, who was not an admirer of convents. ”Miss Maynard tells me she took two trunks full of summer and winter clothing. She had not a notion before she went to the convent how she was to dress or what she was to do.”
”I am afraid, notwithstanding, that we cannot indict the Lady Superior as a swindler, whatever opinion we may secretly form of her,” answered Mr Franklin, laughing. ”I daresay that Miss Maynard will soon be able to replace her loss. We would rather not have her adventure made public, except for the sake of a warning to others.”
Miss Lawson, whose garments fortunately fitted Clara, begged that she would take such as she might require until the dressmaker could forward those which had been ordered. The next morning, heartily thanking Mr Franklin and his relations, Clara and the general set off for Cheltenham. It was not to be expected that Clara would at once recover her spirits and serenity of mind; but fortunately they had the carriage to themselves, and thus the general had an opportunity of further explaining the subjects he had touched on on the previous day. As he never was without his Bible, he was able to refer to that, and to point to many texts which of late Clara had heard sadly perverted, or which had been carefully avoided. He explained to her the origin of the whole Romish system, and showed her how identical that of the Ritualists was with it; the great object being to exalt and give power to a priestly caste, who, pretending to stand between G.o.d and the sinner, thus obtain power over the minds and property of their fellow-creatures. ”Such has been the object of certain men imbued with a desire to rule their more ignorant and more superst.i.tious fellows, from the earliest ages; it was this spirit which influenced the priests of Egypt, Greece, and Rome; it exists throughout India, among the savages of America in their medicine--men, in the islands of the Pacific, and indeed in every region of the world. It is the object of the Romish system, and is now exhibiting itself in a more subtle form among the ministers of the Church of England. We properly apply the term sacerdotalism to any system the spirit of which seeks to place a human being in any intermediate character between G.o.d and man. Sacerdotalism is in direct opposition and antagonistic to the genius of the Gospel, which enunciates the great truth that there is but one Mediator between G.o.d and man, the Man Jesus Christ; that through the atoning blood of Christ, man, if truly turning to Him, and heartily believing, receives directly, and without any other agency whatever, pardon and absolution. He, and He alone, pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, that is, look to Him and unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel. Christ, and Christ alone, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life to seeking, travailing, heavy-laden man; whereas the Romanists, as do the Ritualists, a.s.sert that without the priestly function there is no complete remission, no claim to all the benefit of the Pa.s.sion, no a.s.surance of G.o.d's sanctifying grace. There must be, say these people, contrition, confession, and satisfaction united with the sacerdotal function, a succession of acts, the priest being the organ of G.o.d's sanctifying grace.”
”Oh, then, of what mockery, of what sin, have I been guilty?” exclaimed Clara.
”Turn from it, and look to Jesus, and He grants immediate forgiveness,”
answered the general.
”Would that all who are misled as I have been might receive that glorious truth!” cried Clara. ”Oh, general, tell it everywhere, and show me how I may help to open the eyes of others as mine have been opened.”
”G.o.d alone can open the eyes of the blind; but we can become active instruments in His hands by conveying to them the remedy for their blindness,” said the general, taking Clara's hand. ”Your words afford me infinite satisfaction, and remove an anxious weight from my heart on your own account, and on that of one naturally still dearer to me.
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