Part 23 (1/2)
”I wish, John Priestly, that you could see Nanna, and speak comfort to her heart.”
”That must be thy message, David. And be sure that thee knows well the children's portion in the Scriptures. Thee must show Nanna that _theirs is the kingdom_. What we win through great tribulation they inherit through the love of the Father. _Theirs is the kingdom_; and there is no distinction of elect or non-elect, as I read the t.i.tle.”
”I count the hours now until I am able to travel. I long for the sea that stretches nor'ard to the ice, and the summer days, when the sunset brightens the midnight. No need to egg me on. I am all the time thinking of the old town growing out of the mist, and I know how I shall feel when I stand on the pier again among the fishers, when I hurry through the clean, quiet streets, while the kind people nod and smile, and call to each other, 'Here is David Borson come back again.'”
”And Nanna?”
”She is the heart of my longing.”
”And thee is taking her glad tidings of great joy.”
”I am that. So there is great hurry in my heart, for I like not to sit in the suns.h.i.+ne and know that Nanna is weeping in the dark.”
”Thee must not be discouraged if she be at first unable to believe thy report.”
”The hour will come. Nanna was ever a seeker after G.o.d. She will listen joyfully. She will take the cup of salvation, and drink it with thanksgiving. We shall stand together in the light, loving G.o.d and fearing G.o.d, but not afraid of him. Faith in Christ will set her free.”
”But lean hard upon G.o.d's Word, David. There is light enough and help enough for every strait of life in it. Let thy creed lie at rest. There are many doors to scientific divinity, but there is only one door to heaven. And I will tell thee this thing, David: if men had to be good theologians before they were good Christians, the blessed heaven would be empty.”
”Yet, John, my theology was part of my very life. Nothing to me was once more certain than that men and women were in G.o.d's hand as clay in the potter's. And as some vessels are made to honor, and some to dishonor, so some men were made for salvation and honor, and others for rejection and dishonor.”
”Clay in the potter's hand! And some for honor, and some for dishonor! We will even grant that much; but tell me, David, does the potter ever make his vessels for _the express purpose of breaking them_? No, no, David! He is not willing that _any_ should perish. Christ is not going to lose what he has bought with his blood. The righteous are planted as trees by the watercourses, but G.o.d does not plant any tree for fuel.”
”He is a good G.o.d, and his name is Love.”
”So, then, thee is going back to Shetland with glad tidings for many a soul. What will thy hands find to do for thy daily bread?”
”I shall go back to the boats and the nets and lines.”
”Would thee like to have a less dangerous way of earning thy bread?
My father has a great business in the city, and thee could drive one of the big drays that go to the docks.”
”I could not. I can carry a s.h.i.+p through any sea a s.h.i.+p can live in; I could not drive a Shetland shelty down an empty street. I am only a simple sea-dog. I love the sea. Men say for sure it is in my heart and my blood. I must live on the sea. When my hour comes to die, I hope the sea will keep my body in one of her clean, cool graves. If G.o.d gives me Nanna, and we have sons and daughters, they shall have a happy childhood and a good schooling. Then I will put all the boys in the boats, and the girls shall learn to grow like their mother, and, if it please G.o.d, they shall marry good men and good fishers.”
”It seems to me that the life of a fisher is a very hard one, and withal that it hath but small returns.”
”Fishers have their good and their bad seasons. They take their food direct from the hand of G.o.d; so, then, good or bad, it is all right. Fishers have their loves and joys and sorrows; birth and marriage and death come to them as to others. They have the same share of G.o.d's love, the same Bible, the same hope of eternal life, that the richest men and women have. It is enough.”
”And hard lives have their compensations, David. Doubtless the fisherman's life has its peculiar blessings?”
”It has. The fisher's life is as free from temptation as a life can be. He _has_ to trust G.o.d a great deal; if he did not he would very seldom go into the boats at all.”
”Yet he holds the ocean 'in the hollow of his hand.'”
”That is true. I never feel so surely held in the hollow of his hand as when the waves are as high as my masthead, and my boat smashes into the black pit below. There is none but G.o.d then. Thank you, Friend John, but I shall live and die a fisherman.”
”Would thee care to change Shetland for some warmer and less stormy climate?”
”Would a man care to change his own father and mother for any other father and mother? Stern and hard was my poor father, and he knew not how to love; but his memory is dear to me, and I would not break the tie between us--no, not to be the son of a king! My native land is a poor land, but I have thought of her green and purple moors among gardens full of roses. Shetland is my _home_, and home is sweet and fair and dear.”