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Article THREE CHRISTMAS EVES. ← Page 4 of 8 →
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Three Christmas Eves.
Master—and attached it to our little darling's necklace ; . at the same time I gave my Mary my certificate to put in a place of safety in her luggage . " 'In the Channel a terrible storm came on , which , by the time that we had gained the Bay of Biscay , reached such a frightful pitch that wo became a perfect wreck . "' The boats were ordered out , and into one I put my darling , when , as I was preparing tofodow hera huge wave came and either swamped the boat or carried her
. , far out of sight of the ship . " ' I fell down in a s woon , and only recovered long hours after in the bottom of another of the boats into which the Captain had put me . Instantly the whole scene was again before me , and frantically crying for my darling , something within my brain gave way , ancl I remembered no more .
" 'Months or years afterwards—I knew not which—I came to my senses m an asylum in France , to which , by the Captain ' s ( a Brother ) Idndness I had been taken , and where I had been well cared for , and visited frequently by the Brethren of the Lodge held in the town . " ' When I was sufficiently recovered , a farewell Lodge was held , and enough money having been given me to defray my expenses , my more-than-Brethren accompanied me to shiand bade me God-speed .
my p , " ' I reached home—this place—only to find that the bank wherein my money was deposited had failed , and that I was actually a beggar . But worse than this remained behind . My child was gone—my little Mary lost ! Oh , heaven ! what should I do ? The last bond that held me to earth was snapped asunder ! " ' Wildly I rushed from the Brother ' s house into whose charge I had given my little onewhence through the carelessness of a nurse she had strayed or been stolen ; and
, , uttering frightful imprecations on that Brother ' s head , who , nevertheless , was in it all blameless , I hurried in the darkness of that second Christmas Eve to the Hard . " 'My very brain was on fire , for the same wild madness had returned again with tenfold intensity , and I was determined to join my Mary in that far-off land to which I was sure she had been called , or at least to end by one short sharp pang the misery in this that I could no longer bear .
" ' Rushing frantically along , I can just remember catching sight of a break m the parapet wall of the quay where some repairs were being done , and to this I turned ; hut as I approached it , with a view to making the fatal spring into the black seething waters below , I stumbled and fell over some tool that the builders had left behind when they had gone from their daily work , ancl at the same moment my hand struck against some small hard object lying on the pavement in the shadow of the wall . Unconsciously I
picked it up , and , for the moment , to my maddened brain , the shock of the fall brought back partial reason . Stooping , I groped for the object over which I had fallen , and , dragging it into the feeble light of the cloud-obscured moon , I thought at first that it was a plumb-rule . In one instant of time—nay ! it could have hardly been even an instantthere flashed across my mind— " God is an upright Judge ! "•— " Shad not the God of all the earth do right ? " Sinking upon my knees , I found that the tool was really a large
level , and thereupon my thoughts wandered on to : "My ways are equal , your ways are unequal , saith the Lord ! " At the same moment the moon , bursting afresh from the driving clouds , cast a beam of pale light upon the object that I held in my hand , which fell open , for it was a book , a bible , dropped by some one on the road to church , and there I read : "He ruleth the raging of the sea and stilleth the waves thereof when they arise ! " The wind blew over rapidly the pages , and my eyes fell upon the words , '' Peace .
be still ! and immediately there was a great calm ! " " 'I saw it all now clearly enough , and falling prone upon the hard cold earth , 1 fervently pressed my lips upon the Word of that Great Father who , thus whispormg words of peace instead of condemnation to my troubled soul , had , by His far-reaching pardon , even in the midst of a premeditated deadly sin , " saved my soul from death , restored quiet to my brain , and drawn my heart to Him . " ' And yet I needed comfort . Were not my dear ones gone ? Gone , too , was my earthly all . But for this I did not care further than that the loss of it would prevent
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Three Christmas Eves.
Master—and attached it to our little darling's necklace ; . at the same time I gave my Mary my certificate to put in a place of safety in her luggage . " 'In the Channel a terrible storm came on , which , by the time that we had gained the Bay of Biscay , reached such a frightful pitch that wo became a perfect wreck . "' The boats were ordered out , and into one I put my darling , when , as I was preparing tofodow hera huge wave came and either swamped the boat or carried her
. , far out of sight of the ship . " ' I fell down in a s woon , and only recovered long hours after in the bottom of another of the boats into which the Captain had put me . Instantly the whole scene was again before me , and frantically crying for my darling , something within my brain gave way , ancl I remembered no more .
" 'Months or years afterwards—I knew not which—I came to my senses m an asylum in France , to which , by the Captain ' s ( a Brother ) Idndness I had been taken , and where I had been well cared for , and visited frequently by the Brethren of the Lodge held in the town . " ' When I was sufficiently recovered , a farewell Lodge was held , and enough money having been given me to defray my expenses , my more-than-Brethren accompanied me to shiand bade me God-speed .
my p , " ' I reached home—this place—only to find that the bank wherein my money was deposited had failed , and that I was actually a beggar . But worse than this remained behind . My child was gone—my little Mary lost ! Oh , heaven ! what should I do ? The last bond that held me to earth was snapped asunder ! " ' Wildly I rushed from the Brother ' s house into whose charge I had given my little onewhence through the carelessness of a nurse she had strayed or been stolen ; and
, , uttering frightful imprecations on that Brother ' s head , who , nevertheless , was in it all blameless , I hurried in the darkness of that second Christmas Eve to the Hard . " 'My very brain was on fire , for the same wild madness had returned again with tenfold intensity , and I was determined to join my Mary in that far-off land to which I was sure she had been called , or at least to end by one short sharp pang the misery in this that I could no longer bear .
" ' Rushing frantically along , I can just remember catching sight of a break m the parapet wall of the quay where some repairs were being done , and to this I turned ; hut as I approached it , with a view to making the fatal spring into the black seething waters below , I stumbled and fell over some tool that the builders had left behind when they had gone from their daily work , ancl at the same moment my hand struck against some small hard object lying on the pavement in the shadow of the wall . Unconsciously I
picked it up , and , for the moment , to my maddened brain , the shock of the fall brought back partial reason . Stooping , I groped for the object over which I had fallen , and , dragging it into the feeble light of the cloud-obscured moon , I thought at first that it was a plumb-rule . In one instant of time—nay ! it could have hardly been even an instantthere flashed across my mind— " God is an upright Judge ! "•— " Shad not the God of all the earth do right ? " Sinking upon my knees , I found that the tool was really a large
level , and thereupon my thoughts wandered on to : "My ways are equal , your ways are unequal , saith the Lord ! " At the same moment the moon , bursting afresh from the driving clouds , cast a beam of pale light upon the object that I held in my hand , which fell open , for it was a book , a bible , dropped by some one on the road to church , and there I read : "He ruleth the raging of the sea and stilleth the waves thereof when they arise ! " The wind blew over rapidly the pages , and my eyes fell upon the words , '' Peace .
be still ! and immediately there was a great calm ! " " 'I saw it all now clearly enough , and falling prone upon the hard cold earth , 1 fervently pressed my lips upon the Word of that Great Father who , thus whispormg words of peace instead of condemnation to my troubled soul , had , by His far-reaching pardon , even in the midst of a premeditated deadly sin , " saved my soul from death , restored quiet to my brain , and drawn my heart to Him . " ' And yet I needed comfort . Were not my dear ones gone ? Gone , too , was my earthly all . But for this I did not care further than that the loss of it would prevent