The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1878-03-20

would have told you, had she spoken from
the honest conviction of her heart at the
commencement of the year, that she was
very good ore; she meant to be, and how
she had failed she did not know. For some
how her religion didn't seem to help her,
She meant to be very religious, too, but there
we're very crooked lines along the paths OF
prayer and Bible reading which she had
marked out; nor, in spite of all her resolu'
tions aud Intentions, could she find anything
to help her keep back the sharp word and
angry thought till it was too late.
But there was a still more crooked track
visible along the latter months of the old
year About August, AhOe's mother, over
come By hard work, had been seized with
slow fever, and on her eldest daughter fell
The delicate task of nursing. A girl fresh
from school might be pardoned for ignorance,
bat not for carelessness and neglect; yet
poor Alice felt, as this evening her mother
lay up stairs, helpless invalid for the long
years to come, that the partial paralysis in.
duced by exposure and want Of care was al
her fault, and the steps which led to it seem
ed very crooked track indeed.
/ So there she stood looking out over the
snow, thinking her own thoughts of the dis
I
appointing past, and adding to them hopeless
forebodings for the future.
For how was she, taught her own weak
ness by bitter experience, to enter upon tn
new year with her new load of care, tn
house, the children, her fathers comfort, ant
the charge of her invalid mother, and expeo
success, where only failure had been before
So far as she could see, the tracks must con
tinue to be crooked for all coming tine.
But as she looked, loud CHEEKY hallo
was heard, which called the boys back from
the pond, and round the corner of the hous
came the man Of-all work, mountedSon tn
wood sled, to which was attached old Han
nah, the mare. "Come boys!" he shouted
q" the roads got to be broken; tomorrow
New Years Day, and like to finish off a
the old jobs with the old year" Soon al
we're at work, and the steady old horse
guided by the steady old man, marched di
rectly on toward the gate, The boys fol
lowed, tramping down the snow and bestin
it hard, till just before the shadows hid tn
outside landscape completely from her view
where the crooked tracks lay before, Alic
could trace broad, level road straight as a
arrow. Then, as she turned from the win
dow, many things she had learned and hear
before flashed With new meaning upon be
memory; and before she went to see to tea
call in the children, welcome her father, an
make her mother comfortable for the nigh
she knelt alone in her room, and, in the quit
stiffness of the winter twilight, put her han
by prayer and faith into the blessed Han
which has promised to lead Alright, and in
} plored that heavenly Guide to so strengthe
her in following closely in the footsteps {
steady, old fashioned duty, as that hencefOrt
every crooked thing in her life should b
made straight.
Friends, as you look back along you
home-life records of 1877, do you see an
crooked tracks? As you look forward owe
the fair untrodden fields of 1878, would 20
like to reproduce them? Ia answer to th
yes, and no, which AN sure these question
will elicit, l say Do as Alice did, and you
path will be straight as that which leadet
directly to the perfect days. s. Times.