superstitious, are you?"
"I do not know what is superstitious," said Rotha, her eyes still fixed upon his face with an intentness which moved him, while yet at the same time, he saw, she was swallowing down a great deal of disturbance.
"Well," he said, speaking very easily, "it is superstition, when people think that anything beneath the Creator has power to govern the world he has made--or to govern any part of it."
"I was not thinking of the government of the world," said Rotha,
"Only of a very small part of it,--the affairs of your little life. You were afraid that being prepared for trouble might bring the trouble, in some mysterious way?"
The girl was silent, and her eyes fell to the hand which held hers. What would she do, if ever that hand ceased to be her protection? People of Rotha's temperament receive impressions easily, and to her fancy that hand was an epitome of the whole character to which it belonged. Delicately membered, and yet nervously and muscularly strong; kept in a perfection of care, and graceful as it was firm in movement; yet ready, she knew, to plunge itself into anything where human want or human trouble called for its help. Rotha loved the touch of it, obeyed every sign of it, and admired every action of it; and now as she looked, two big, hot tears fell down over her cheeks. The hand closed a little more firmly upon her fingers.
"Rotha--you believe me?" he said.
"What, Mr. Digby?"
"You believe me when I tell you, that I am never going to leave you or lose you by any will or doing of mine--"
"By whose then?" said Rotha quickly.
"By nobody's else, either, I promise you--unless by your own."
"By mine!" said Rotha, and a faint smile broke upon her troubled face.
"Well, you believe me? And now, my child, that is all you and I can do. And nevertheless, a time might come when you might want help and comfort, that is all I am saying; and I want to give you one or two things to remember in case such a time ever does come, and I am not at hand to ask. Get your Bible, and a pencil."
He let her hand loose, and Rotha obeyed immediately.
"Find the fourth chapter of John, and read to the fourteenth verse."
Rotha did so.
"What do you think the Lord meant?"
Rotha studied, and would have said she "did not know," only she had found by experience that Mr. Digby never would take that answer from her in a case like the present.
"I suppose," she said, speaking slowly, and vainly endeavouring to find words that quite suited her,--"he meant--something like-- He meant, that he could give her something good, that would last."
Mr. Digby smiled.
"That would last always, and never fail, nor change, nor wear out its goodness."
"But, Mr. Digby, I should not want to stop being thirsty, because I should lose the pleasure of drinking."
Mr. Digby smiled again. "Did you think _that_ was what the Lord promised? What would be the use of that 'well of water, springing up into everlasting life'? No, he meant only, that thirst and thirst and thirst as you will, the supply should always be at hand and be sufficient."
Rotha gave one of her quick glances of comprehension, which it was always pleasant to meet.
"Then go on, and tell me what is this living water which the Lord will give?"
"I suppose--do you mean--religion?" she said, after another pause of consideration.
"Religion is a rather vague term--people understand very different things under it. But if by 'religion' you mean the knowledge, the loving knowledge, of God,--you are right. Living water, in the Bible, constantly typifies the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart; and what He does, where he is received, is, to shew us Christ."
"Then how can people be thirsty, after they have got the knowledge?" inquired Rotha.
But Mr. Digby's smile was very sweet this time, and awed her.
"After you have once come to know and love a friend," said he, turning his eyes upon Rotha, "are you satisfied, and want to see and hear no more of him?"
"Is religion like that?" said Rotha.
"Just like that. What the Lord Jesus offers to give us is himself. Now suppose the time come when you greatly desire to receive this gift, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. Pray?"
"Certainly. But how? There are different ways of praying; and there is just one way which the Lord promises shall never miss what it asks for."
"I don't know but one way," said Rotha.
"Are you sure you know _one?_ It takes more than words to make a prayer. But turn to the second chapter of Proverbs. Read the third and fourth and fifth verses."
Rotha read, and made no comment.
"You see? You understand?"
"Yes, Mr. Digby."
"'If thou searchest for her as for hid treasures, _then_ shalt thou understand, and find.'--You know how people search for hid treasures?"
"Yes."
"They leave no stone unturned, they work by night and by day, they think of nothing else, until their object is gained. Mark those two places, Rotha, and mark them in the fly leaf of your Bible, 1. and 2."
"Suppose," he went on when she had done this, "suppose you have sought in this way, and the light does not come, and you are in danger of losing heart. Then turn to Hosea, sixth chapter and third verse. There you have an antidote against discouragement. You shall know, 'if you _follow on_ to know the Lord;' if you do not give over seeking and grow tired of praying. 'His going forth is prepared as the morning.' Blessed words!"----
"I do not know what they mean," said Rotha.
"Do you know how the morning is prepared?"
"No, sir."
"Do you know why the sun rises when morning comes?"
"It wouldn't be morning, if he didn't rise, would it?"
"No. Well, when the time comes," said Mr. Digby laughing. "Do you know why the sun rises? and why does he not rise where he went down?"
"No--" said Rotha, her eyes kindling with intelligent curiosity.
Whereupon Mr. Digby turned himself out of his hammock, and coming to the table gave Rotha her first lesson in astronomy; a lesson thoroughly given, and received by her with an eagerness and a delight which shewed that knowledge to her was like what the magnet is to the iron. She forgot all about the religious bearing of the new subject till the subject itself was for that time done with. Then Mr. Digby's questions returned into the former channel.
"You see now, Rotha, how the morning is 'prepared,' do you?"
"Yes, Mr. Digby," she answered joyously.
"And sure to come. If the earth goes on turning round, it cannot help coming. Even so: the Lord's coming is prepared and sure, for any one who persistently seeks him. Keep on towards the east and you will certainly see the sun rise."
"Yes," said Rotha, "I see. It is beautiful."
"Mark that No. 3 in the fly leaf! But Rotha, remember, anybody truly in earnest and searching 'as for hid treasure,' will be willing to give up whatever would render the search useless."
"Yes, of course. But what would?" said Rotha, though she was thinking more of the improvised planetarium with which her imagination had just been delighted.
"Turn once more to the fourteenth of John and read the 21st verse." But Mr. Digby himself gave the words.
"'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.'"
"That is somebody who has found the treasure, I think, Mr. Digby; it is 'he that _loveth me_.'"
"Quite true; nevertheless, Rotha, it remains a fact that nobody who is not willing to do the Lord's will, can come to the knowledge of him."
"Mr. Digby, why are wrong things so easy, and right things so hard?"
"They are not."
"I thought they were," said Rotha in surprise. "Am I worse than other people?"
"It all depends upon where you stand, Rotha. Would you find it easy t
o do something that would cause me great pain?"
"No, Mr. Digby,--impossible."
"I believe it," he said. "Then just put the case that you loved Christ much better than you do me; which would be the hard and the easy things then?"
Rotha was silent. But the whole conversation had rather given new food for the meditations it had interrupted and which had occasioned it. Where was all this to end?--the young man asked himself. And when should it end, in so far as the immediate state of things was concerned? As soon as possible! his