Ruth Lamb

“ Think, Margaret, a hundred and eleven went away disappointed while one got a start!"
"Whose fault was that?" retorted Margaret, with some sharpness. "Doesn't it come of teaching lads too much, and making 'em all want to be gentlemen, instead of good workmen, like their fathers were content to be?"
"I shouldn't be sorry if I had a bit more learning," Adam had replied. "It helps a man on, whatever station of life he may be in. If he's poor, he can get more pleasure and satisfaction out of a spare hour with a good book to read and enjoy." ”

“ Dear mothers, if you could only understand how much it is in your power to brighten your children's lives, you would surely do it. If Adam Livesey's mother had met him with a smile when he came in, and told him that she thanked God for having left her such a helper in her boy! If she had put her arms round his neck and given him a loving kiss, as she took his hardly-won wages, or said she was sorry he had so heavy a weight to carry while still so young! ”

“ Adam had already derived much comfort from following this advice. He looked for his morning and evening messages as portions of bread on which his soul could feed during his hours of toil, or wakeful seasons during the night-watches.
One day there came the words, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep."
Adam had always been one to feel for and with others, but he was too shy and silent to express his sympathy. But these words gave him courage, and he tried to comfort a fellow workman who was in great trouble at the time. ”

“ Maggie was right in supposing that Adam's arm would never again be fit to wield that ponderous hammer which once swung to and fro like a toy in his powerful grasp. But her dreams became realities. It was most unlikely that no place would be found in the old works for one who had not only been injured through saving the manager from death, but who was in himself so trustworthy. Again good came out of the past evil.
An old man, much respected at Rutherford's, had a legacy bequeathed to him, which, with his savings, enabled him to retire. ”

“ Livesey's experience during her mother's illness brought no anxiety for Mrs. Allison, or teaching to herself. So far as the sick woman was concerned, she seemed to have no particular fears about the future; indeed, her opinion of herself very much resembled that of Adam when he first began to think over his past life. She derived satisfaction from comparing it with lives of others, and her youngest daughter, willing to cheer her as well as she knew how, said, "Don't you fret, mother. You've no call to worrit. You've been a good-living woman if ever there was one." ”

“ Just at this moment Adam heard voices behind the shrubs. One was that of a girl, and as she passed on, she gaily hummed a tune. It was one that his wife used to sing in her clear fresh voice, which he had so loved to hear, during their brief courtship and early married days. The sound actually brought moisture, of which he felt thoroughly ashamed, to Adam's eyes, and he was gently disengaging one hand so as to wipe it away, when a different voice addressed him by name. ”

“ When I've done wrong, I feel weighed down, as if I was carrying a load, and I go and ask God to forgive me, for Jesus sake, and then I get light and happy again; or I get down-hearted, thinking I've no father, and mother isn't strong; for there are ever so many young ones at our house. Then I bethink myself that I have a Father in heaven that loves me, and a Friend in Jesus that will never forsake me, and I'm cheered up again. ”

“ Drummond curious to know which was Adam Livesey. He thought that a man of whom his fellows gave such a character might be worth a little looking after. But the manager was too wise to startle the men by making sudden changes. He wanted to get acquainted with them, not merely as items in the human machinery which kept Rutherford's going, but as fellow men, with souls to be saved, minds to be enlightened, bodies to be cared for, homes to be brightened, lives to be cheered and influenced for good. ”

“ They go by hundreds after everything that means being stuck at a desk with a pen in their hands, and think they're gentlemen on fifteen shillings a week. Why, if there's a place for a clerk at ever such a trifle to begin with, they're after it like a swarm of flies round a dab of treacle. They go on trying to live genteel on less wage than my Adam gets, and that's little enough. Any way, working folks that don't pretend to be anything else, have no need to dress up like them that have ten times as much to spend."
Margaret's ambition for her boys was that each should learn a trade of some kind. ”

“ MR. DRUMMOND had sent Richard Evans to break the bad news of the accident to Mrs. Livesey, whilst he accompanied Adam to the hospital.
"Oh, Mr. Evans! My poor Adam, my husband!" wailed Margaret, as she saw the face of the old workman, and not waiting to hear what news he had brought. "To think he should be taken from me in such a way, and him so good and kind. There's so many that are no use to anybody, and that nobody would want, though they might miss them for their very badness, and because they made their families miserable. ”

“ If Adam could have been induced to open his mind to anybody, he would have summed up his experience by saying that, all through life, he had received "more kicks than ha'pence."
A clever lad, he would have done credit to good schooling, but could not get it. Just as he was beginning to understand the value of learning, his father died, and Adam had to go to work. The years that followed were marked by scanty fare, rough treatment, and small wages, which went to the support of those at home, who were younger and more helpless than himself. ”

“ All poor Adam's patience and long-suffering, his unselfishness, his loving ways with his little ones, his steady industry, his perfect confidence in and true affection for herself, his silence under provocation, or the soft answers which always seemed most natural to him, where many a man under similar circumstances would have replied with an oath and a blow—all these things came before her mind's eye on one side. ”

“ So the wife grumbled at being a domestic slave, and being quick-tempered as well as keen-witted, often made the house too hot for husband and children.
Adam never retorted. On the contrary, he felt terribly guilty, and reminded himself of those old misgivings that had tormented him before his marriage. "I ought never to have asked a bright young lass like Maggie to tie herself to a grim know-naught of a fellow such as I am. But it can't be undone now. I must just work on, and when the children grow up, they'll help, and things will be better for the mother." ”

“ Adam isn't the one to bear malice. He'll forget and forgive. He's badly hurt. Arm broken in two places, beside cuts and bruises, but he'll get well in time, no fear."
"Get well!" cried Margaret, hardly believing that her ears were telling the truth. "Why, some one told my little Tom that his father was killed, and ever so many more men beside him."
"Nay, Mrs. Livesey, things are not that bad," said Richard, relieved to find himself in the position of one who brings comparatively good tidings, when his heart had been sinking within him at the thought of what had to be told. ”

“ The most he had looked for was labouring work proportioned to his strength, and perhaps with wages also in proportion to the diminution of his bodily powers.
"Who'll say you're of no account now, Adam?" said Maggie, beyond measure proud and delighted when he brought the news.
"Dear lass, I don't feel that it's because me being of any more account that this good has come to us," was Adam's answer. "In a way, I am worth less than ever. But it shows how God cares for us, for the sake of Him that you and I look to as our Saviour now. He never forgets the poorest and the least of His children. ”

“ Because with our outward sight, we can discern only human beings of like sinful inclinations with ourselves, liable to the same temptations and trials. We want to turn away from this picture, from sin to perfect holiness; from rebellion to perfect obedience; from hate, enmity, indifference, to perfect love, compassion, and self-devotion. But we need the eye of faith for this. Faith sees the remedy for sin, the Reconciler of sinners, the sinless Sufferer, the all-sufficient Saviour in Jesus Christ, the God-man, in whose name I come to you to-night, and whose message I bring. ”

“ What's done is done. I'm forty years old, and I'm just where I was at twenty-five, as far as wages go. I had two to feed then. I've eight now. Things are past mending for me. I'm o' no account in the world, and I shall never be of any."
"Of no account! I cannot agree with you there. You are of account, as a workman. What would become of Rutherford's if all such as you were withdrawn? There are many idle, useless people in the world, who could be better spared in a batch, than one man who does as honest a day's work as Adam Livesey." ”

“ Drummond had been enabled to show Adam that he ought not to deem himself of no account.
"It isn't that my husband thinks more of himself in a way," said Margaret. "He's that humble he'd put anybody before him. But he's a happy man now, and he looks up, as one may say, instead of looking down-trodden, and as if he hadn't a friend in the world, like he used to do."
"It's because he has a Friend, not only for this world but for ever and ever, in Jesus," said Sarah. ”

“ Adam looked at Margaret with a tender, yearning gaze, but she did not return it or answer his good-bye, and he went off to his work, whilst Margaret continued her grumble to a neighbour, who came in at the moment.
"I was just talking to our Adam about his wages," she said. "As a regular thing, he only gets a pound a week. When he has piece work, it mends things a good bit, only the poor fellow has to slave like anybody on the treadmill when Rutherford's is busy. But he never grumbles, not he. You might think half Millborough belonged to him, to hear him talk." ”

“ Afterwards the preacher spoke again.
"Perhaps," he said, "many of you would like to take Jesus at His word. You that are tired of your present way of life, without God and without hope, want to accept the invitation, 'Come unto Me.' But you think it is for anybody but you. The message is good—too good to be true for you. You think to yourselves, 'I'm o' no account. Only a poor working man, or weary woman, tired with the task that never comes to an end. Who cares for me? ”

“ Livesey in a sharp tone. "Their mother doesn't want them. She has a girl, and can go out herself when she likes. What has started them now? You've gone to school for a year without being together on Sundays."
"They have often asked me, but I said you wanted me," whimpered Maggie.
"They might know that without telling," said Mrs. Livesey, and at the moment she gave Maggie's newly washed hair a tug which brought tears into the child's eyes.
"There, there! I didn't mean to hurt you. It's no use talking about Sunday school. You haven't a hat and frock fit to go there in, so say no more about it." ”

“ Her standing sample of the class was her near neighbour, Sarah Jackson, and she regarded her with unmeasured contempt.
"If that woman was worth her salt, she'd have her house like a little palace, and save a fortune out of what he gives her! It's a wonder the man's alive, the way he has to scramble for his meals," Maggie would say, as she looked with pardonable pride on her own surroundings. ”

“ His mother's last days were free from toil, for, when the other two lads had crossed the ocean and found homes in far-away lands, Adam stayed by her and worked for her. Before Mrs. Livesey died, she seemed to realize that she might have made her children happier, and that she herself might have found a good deal of sweetness towards the bottom of life's cup, if she had not closed her lips against what was left, because of the one bitter draught she had been compelled to drink. ”

“ But there is always a fear that sham Christians may mislead those who know no better, and who have not yet learned what is meant by the 'grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.' When they see that the bright outside disappears in the time of trial and temptation, and that they are no better than those who do not profess to follow Christ, they say that there is nothing real in religion. They scoff at it, and declare they would rather be without it, than pretend to be better than their neighbours, while they are only hypocrites. ”