Stories To Tell To Children
S >>
Sara Cone Bryant >> Stories To Tell To Children
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 | 12
Presently he asked them about their
lives. They told him the little there was to
tell: they had worked hard always, in the
fields with their husbands, or in the house;
they had many children; they had seen
hard times,--sickness, sorrow; but they
had never despaired.
"But what of your good deeds," the
hermit asked,--"what have you done for
God?"
"Very little," they said, sadly, for they
were too poor to give much. To be sure,
twice every year, when they killed a sheep
for food, they gave half to their poorer
neighbors.
"That is very good, very faithful," the
hermit said. "And is there any other good
deed you have done?"
"Nothing," said the older woman,
"unless, unless--it might be called a good
deed--" She looked at the younger
woman, who smiled back at her.
"What?" said the hermit.
Still the woman hesitated; but at last
she said, timidly, "It is not much to tell,
father, only this, that it is twenty years
since my sister-in-law and I came to live
together in the house; we have brought
up our families here; and in all the
twenty years there has never been a cross
word between us, or a look that was
less than kind."
The hermit bent his head before the
two women, and gave thanks in his heart.
"If my soul is as these," he said, "I am
blessed indeed."
And suddenly a great light came into
the hermit's mind, and he saw how many
ways there are of serving God. Some
serve him in churches and in hermit's cells,
by praise and prayer; some poor souls who
have been very wicked turn from their
wickedness with sorrow, and serve him
with repentance; some live faithfully and
gently in humble homes, working, bringing
up children, keeping kind and cheerful;
some bear pain patiently, for his sake.
Endless, endless ways there are, that only
the Heavenly Father sees.
And so, as the hermit climbed the mountain
again, he thought,--
"As he saw the star-like glow
Of light, in the cottage windows far,
How many God's hidden servants are!"
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 | 12