Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-02-16

encompass you, and you hnd yOurseH DEVIL
dered and gone astraY. But after time, the
light will return then everything will seem
clear and plain"
She shook her head. ut may be so, but 1
am worse than you think me- I am frighten-
ed when look into my own heart. l am so
changed It isn't only the outward change,
or that am dull and melancholy; that is not
the worst. Ican find no comfort in anything" "
sCan't you find it in Gods own word !?
Read the Bible, and see what He says"
II try to read it, but the words have no
meaning for me-"
Mr.. Erskine was silent for little while.
At last, he said, in deeply moved tone
'My child, am not fit person to talk to
you about these things. I am only learner
myself, not teacher, in the school of religion
It is but year or two since I first began to
turn my attention to serious subjects. But if
you feel as you say you do, you should unour-
den your heart to your mother. She will know
how to guide, how to counsel you. You are
only increasing the evil by shutting it up and
brooding over it in secret Take my advice,
and tell her all your difficulties. fused always
to find, when 1 was perplexed or worried, that
my mother could help me better than any one
else.''
"Mamma would be so shocked She is so
good herself, such perfect Christian, that she
would not understand my being so wicked"
'The most perfect Christians, I have heard,
are always the most ready to make allowances
for the frailty of others. At all events, try
my plan. Your mother may be shocked, but
not in the sense you mean. 1t will be grief
to her to discover how far your sorrow has led
you; but it will be her comfort and delight to
find herself instrumental in leading you back
again to pleasant, peaceful paths. You DO
both yourself and her an injustice, in keeping
up this chilling reserve. Open, unrestrained
confidence will be better, as well as more natu-
raj, for you BOTH"
Sophy made no answer. She seemed disin-
clined to talk any more. After sitting little
longer, he bade her goodnight, and went
away His heart ached sorely to comfort her !;
but he did not know how. However, his ad-
vice had not been given quite in vain. She
thought it over, and though she did not act
Immediately upon it, it had, in due time, its
effect. She had sometimes felt painful, op-
pressive sense of the reserve which, in spite OF
all her love for her mother, had built up a sort
of barrier between them, ever since she had
accepted the certainty of her loss; and the
fault, undoubtedly, was her own. She had re-
earded her trouble as too exclusively hers had
hugged it to herself, and jealously shut out
Others from participating in it. Now she be-
gan to see that she was wrong. Her mother,
overborne, as she was, by grief for her fathers
death, would nevertheless have shared her bur-
den willingly, if she had not voluntarily with
held herself from her sympathy. There had
been time when there was no reserve, no
concealment between thetwo. Mrs. May, still
Youthful in her feelings, had always been
companion, as well as guide, for her daughter,
and when Sophy had passed out OF her child
hood, they were almost like sisters, rather than
parent and child. But those were in happy
days. Sophy had known nothing Of sorrow
before her fathers death. Her very being was
changed now. She had truly said that when
she searched her own heart, she did not know
herself. Afliction was a new, strange expe-
rience. 1t dismayed and bewildered her. She
could not bring herself, as it were, to betray
to any one the aspect it wore to her, but brood
ed and brooded upon it with secret, silent
persistency that made it tenfold worse She
found it difficult to pray. The religious exer-
cises which she had once delighted in had lost
all pleasure, all meaning for her; and finding
this to be the case, she accused herself OF a
degree of sinfulness Of which she was really
not guilty. Her error lay in yielding passively
to the difficulties which beset her, instead OF
trying to find a way out Of them.
The night after the conversation with MIR.
Erskine, she pondered good deal on this ques-
tion : and it continued from that time, to recur
frequently to her mind. At last, one day,
quite suddenly, the impulse seized her, when
she was with her mother, to open her heart to
the latter and the ice once broken, she only
marvelled that she had lacked the courage to
| speak before. Mrs. May took her into her
arms, and spoke in a way that made it easy TO
follow up her first confidence with others.
With the unselfishness of mother-love, she
threw himself, for the time being, wholly into
her child's doubts, and sorrows, and dismay,
putting aside all Of her own that she might
better act the part of comforter.
"Why did you not come to me before, my
darling ?" she asked.
"I could not, mamma. Something kept the
words shut up in me, though wanted to say
them. And thought you had enough trou-
BILE Of your own"
'I have felt that there was something
| ,yrono ,, Mrs Nav continued ''I saw that it
was not mere grief natural, irrepres-
sible grief as you ought to feel-that was
weighing you down. But it seemed to me
that could not give advice unasked, or seek
to draw from you confession of what you
preferred to keep secret. Perhaps have been
wrong in leaving you thus to yourself but
thought my child was changed, and did not
want my sympathy any more"
The hard, stony surface penetrated and SOFT
ened, themother's tender words OF admonitlon
dropped like dew into Sophy's heart. Long
and earnestly they talked, not only then, but
often again, and these talks were beneficial to
them both. Insensibly the perverse, rebellious
sense of opposition to the Divine will, which
had taken possession of the young girl, began
to melt away. Her sorrow was not removed,
but it was a softer, holier sorrow than before.
She learned to understand that an all-Wlse
Providence could affiict without being cruel
and to find once more that consolation III pray
or which had been so long denied her. And tc
her mother, this renewed bond of sympathy
was an unspeakable comfort In her failing
health, Sophy was naturally her chief support