the present, at least, gratefully to accept the hospitality offered, and to regard it as a covert provided by her God to screen her from the tempest. A person whom the lodg ing-woman knew intended going to England the following week, and under her charge it was fixed that Salome was to travel. The day was cold and bleak, and the wooden benches of the second-class carriage were a poor preservative from its rigour. A five-pound note had been anonymously sent to Salome, but she knew by the post-mark it was from Alleyne, and her delicate sense of honour forbade her now to travel at a greater expense than necessary, though she had always been accustomed to every comfort, which fortune could procure. With cold, hunger, and weariness, she was wholly exhausted when she reached Alleyne, and had to be carried from the carriage to her pleasant apartment. A cheerful fire was blazing there, and a couch was placed beside it. At the further end was a low window, overlooking the flowergarden and the plantations beyond. The pretty chintzhangings of the bedstead, the arm-chair, the footstools, the writing-table, all seemed exactly what an invalid required, and to have been chosen, that she might spend whatever time she preferred in her own apartment. It was nearly a week before she was able to leave it, and often during that time Ethelda took her work, or a book, and sat beside the sufferer. She felt that it was a privilege to do so. Salome had passed through strong fire, but it had purified the gold until the refiner's image was reflected. She was as the vine sharp pruning-knife, but She was as grain, fully that had indeed been purged by a now it brought forth much fruit. ripened for the heavenly garner, or as the flower fitly expanded, to be plucked by Him who feedeth among the lilies. There were two subjects on which Salome yet manifested much anxiety, the one was to be enrolled by profession in the ranks of the Church militant, to bear on earth the name of Christian; and the other, again to hear from, or to see, her beloved but sorrowing parent, and to clasp once more her gentle Adah. Yet, these blessings were submissively sought. She had learnt to say, " Not my will, but Thine be done." Mr. Graham was much interested concerning the Jewish widow. Feeling that she had been taught by Christ, that the Holy Ghost bore witness with her spirit and by her spirit, that she had been born of God, he hesitated not in the proposal that she should be baptized, and was willing to administer it privately at Alleyne. "I have never been," said Salome, "within the walls of a Christian church. I know that place can confer no real benefit: but, were it practicable, I should like, in a spot consecrated to the worship of my triune God, to profess my faith in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." "But would there not be risk of cold?" inquired Mr. Graham, looking at her worn-out frame, which it seemed as if a breath of wind could blight. "My time is short, I know, and an increase of cold might hasten my departure. Still I would use every means to avert it, and He, who numbereth the hairs of my head, can guard me. I can do but little for Christ-I can labour but one short hour. I have publicly worshipped amongst those who hated His holy name. I feel that I ought, if possible, publicly to confess it. so ? " Do you not think "Decidedly. I rejoice in the view you have taken; and may our blessed Saviour enable you to witness a good confession, and by it to glorify His name." It was on a Sunday in January, one of those bright, lovely days that sometimes surprise us in mid-winter, that beside the font in Alleyne church stood the young Jewish widow. She rejoiced to make confession of her faith in the crucified Son of God. She rejoiced with humble confidence. Her step was much firmer, and her eyes were much brighter, than they had been since the day of her arrival. Those who saw her for the first time did not think that she was so near the tomb; yet she entered not those sacred courts again, till, borne thither by the feet of others, the pastor who now signed her with the sign of the cross, in token that she should continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto her life's end, should declare in the words of his risen Lord, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." As they waited for the carriage on the day of Salome's baptism, Ethelda led her round by her mother's tomb. They read the brief inscription below the figure of the slain lamb,-" I laid my sins on Jesus." "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb," said Salome, the tears filling her eyes, "for He hath borne my sins and carried my sorrows. In heaven I shall sing that song more clearly. You cannot tell my joy. A professed follower of Jesus now, humbly trusting that, washed in His blood, I shall hereafter follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. When I am gone, think of me only, as conquering by the Lamb of God who bled on Calvary's cross." "Yes, I shall think of the frail, tender Salome, more than conqueror through Him who loved her." "Has not God chosen the weakest in faith an inheritor of the kingdom to glorify Himself in me? Oh that He would permit my poor father to know the blessedness I now experience! My friend, wilt thou promise me, never to cease to pray for my beloved parent and poor child ?" "I will try, Salome, remembering the promise, If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.' "One of the glorious promises of Jehovah my Saviour. We must not doubt it. I feel that the love, which has stooped to pluck Salome as a brand from the burning, will yet save my father, and preserve my precious child." |