Part 1 (1/2)
'Our guy'
by Mrs. E. E. Boyd.
CHAPTER I.
NEW YEAR'S EVE
HE had gone, the good old year! It was no wonder people sighed as his pulse beat slower and slower, for he had brightened many hearts and gladdened many homes. If he had brought sadness and heart-ache to some, it was only that he never once failed in any duty. Taking from the hand that had given him life-joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, crosses and ease, he gave unto each one what the Master designed. But it happens very often that the rosy morning ends in a night dark and tempestuous, while the clouds that greet our early waking, are followed by the bright s.h.i.+ning of the sun. And there is no life which would not be more bright and joyous, if it only opened the windows and let the light G.o.d means it to have, s.h.i.+ne in.
So there were sighs and regrets as there always are, when one who has been true and kind, has left us forever.
Out on the frosty air floated the sound of bells. Merrily, joyously they pealed forth to welcome the new life that had just dawned, while from far and near the guns gave out their noisy greeting.
Sad hearts brightened, tearful faces smiled. With their old friend had gone the old life; they would throw aside regret and be brave and strong. Among an a.s.sembly of silent wors.h.i.+ppers knelt two sisters side by side. It was as if they had gathered round the bedside of a departing one, trying to catch the last look and to hear the last sound, the stillness only broken by sobs from wrung hearts. Tremblingly their girlish voices united with the mult.i.tude, as with a covenant-keeping G.o.d they renewed their covenant in the words:--
”Come, let us use the grace divine, And all with one accord, In a perpetual cov'nant join Ourselves to Christ the Lord;
Give up ourselves through Jesus' power His name to glorify, And promise in this sacred hour For G.o.d to live and die.
The cov'nant we this moment make, Be ever kept in mind; We will no more our G.o.d forsake, Or cast his words behind.
We never will throw off his fear, Who hears our solemn vow, And if thou art well pleased to hear, Come down and meet us now.
Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Let all our hearts receive; Present with the celestial host, The peaceful answer give.
To each the cov'nant blood apply, Which takes our sins away; And register our names on high, And keep us to that day.”
At the words, ”We will no more our G.o.d forsake,” the voice of the eldest suddenly failed, and burying her face she sobbed aloud. The other seemed to have gathered strength with every word, and now as she sang:--
”We never will throw off his fear Who hears our solemn vow;--”
her voice rang out clear and steady. To her sister it already had an air of triumph, and caused her to look up wonderingly into the face so full of trust and holy purpose. The clear, bright eyes met her tearful gaze; there was a pressure of the hand as entreatingly she said, ”Sing, Ruth; the _Lord_ is our strength, He will help us.”
Re-a.s.sured and comforted, Ruth sang, ”To each the cov'nant blood apply,”
thinking of her sister's words, and feeling already His help.
The New Year's hymn was sung, friends looked into each other's faces with words of cheer, and then separated. They went their ways to carry out their purposes, and with them went Ruth and Agnes.
The girls were orphans. For ten years they had been motherless, and several years previous their father had died. They had no one but their brother Guy, not even a distant relative, and this made them cling very closely to one another. One day when Guy was in a very gay and gracious mood, he took his sisters by the arm and whirling them round sang, ”Lovers three are we, no truer could you see,” to which Ruth laughingly added, ”And we'll faithful be, Guy, Agnes and me.”
But they were not demonstrative. That is they rarely kissed each other; they did not show their love in these many ways that are so beautiful among brothers and sisters. Somehow they had never learned them, for their father had been a stern, forbidding man, who would have called such things ”Stuff, and Nonsense,” and their mother was very timid, looking up to her husband in everything. She would not have dared to teach her children these endearing ways. Sometimes she said ”dear,” and kissed them, and O, how their hearts filled up with love! It made them happy for days after. But they always knew she loved them even more than words or caresses could express, and they gave her back the strength of their young, loving natures. When she left them they drew up closer to each other in thought, loving silently, yet with greater intensity.
Guy, the eldest, was twenty-two and Agnes eighteen. He had just been admitted to the bar, and expected to stand high in his profession before long. His sisters were sure if any one rose, he certainly would, for he had not only ambition but talent, and in speaking of ”our Guy,” they dwelt on the name with great tenderness and pride. He a.s.sured them that no one had made a higher mount at first than he, having rented a third story room, and as the girls did not know much about such matters they were quite satisfied.
Agnes was confiding, truthful. ”Saintly,” Guy called her. She did not know how to reason about things as Ruth, she said, and ”of course was not so wise;” but withall she was stronger and wiser, for she had learned the true wisdom of leaving everything in the hands of G.o.d, knowing that He could better order them than she. And knowing this, she did not question His providences, although they were many times painful and hard to understand. He was to her always a loving Father, and she wanted to be to him a loving, dutiful child.
Ruth was intensely earnest and more practical than Agnes. She believed in the exercise of judgment and not such entire dependence upon the Lord; the latter kept one weak she thought, and she did not see the sense of doing anything that she could not quite understand. So in spiritual things she very often took her own way, but it did not satisfy; her life seemed a life of failure, while Agnes never appeared to be disappointed. They often talked to each other about these things and Ruth felt strange after their talks and more confident of success, but her unsanctified will, her efforts at self-government brought the same result as before.