The Chautauqua Girls At Home

g that they would be quiet. Just how she was going to accomplish this she was not certain. She had studied the words of the lesson most carefully and prayerfully; indeed, they had been

was, she felt that she had it, and believed that she could call it into service for this new work. They stared at her a little as she took her seat, then they nudg

city of a Sunday-school teacher; and, truth to tell, they did not believe she could teach. She was a doll set up before them for them to admire and pretend to listen to; they did not int

at each other, and shuffled their feet louder, and

morning, ain't it? We g

sed face turned that way. It was not reassuring; he evidently expected disastrous times in that

Sunday-school lesson? I never did such a thing in my life; so you mustn't expect wisdom from me.

d teachers who knew extremely little about the lesson, and proved it conclusively, but never once did they own it. Their plan had rather be

ibles?" she

N

they nice? I don't know anything about them. I have never been in Sunday-scho

explanation, and asked so many questions, and took so long to understand it, that they really became very much interested in making it clear to her, and then in helping her carry out the progra

id, at last. "I really don't se

o, and they go around it, and through it, and ask baby questions, and pretend

y lau

I do. But I like to read about this talk that Christ had with the people; and I should have liked of all things to h

and nudging each other. Rich. Johnson seemed to be the speake

ght rather go

joke, and laughed accord

don't wonder that you want to go. It is a grand country.

ible in her lap, a

blessed the good fortune that had made her her father's chosen companion on his hasty trip to California the year before. What had all the trees in Californi

alem. I felt so more and more, after I went to that meeting at Chautauqua, and saw the city al

they looked interested. She could describe a tr

Rich. "That's someth

f course you know that she did that well. Was not her heart there? Had she not found a new love, and life, and hope, while she walked those sunny p

ea, I declare. I wouldn'

uch a city as Jerusalem, and such a person as Jesus Christ did really live,

to stay over it all my life. 'Then said Jesus, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.' Just think how far that reaches! All through the words of Jesus. So many of them, so many things to do, and so many not to do; and then not only to begin to follow them, but to continue; day after day getting a little farther,

ng as the description of the miniature Jerusale

dy like that?" he asked, and the mos

e wh

foot to see a real one. Where's the folks, I'd like to know, that live up to half of the things it says in the Bible? Why, they

e sharp, sarcastic words? He had been studying inconsistencies, and had grown bitter. The others looked on curiously; they had a certain kind of pride in Rich. He was their genius w

e anything to do with that, until we have convinced ourselves that we have been

course not. And, what is more,

e is nothing that I could not have improved upon if I had tried. So by our own confessions what right have you

he to an

't made any pretensions; I'm

to the class who knew our duty, and had nothing to do with it. Now, I wan

over her pretty face. This was her first actual "witnessing" outside

n't know how many times I shall fail, nor how many things I shall fail in. The most I know is, that I mean to 'continue.' After all, don't you see that the verse doesn't say, If you are perfect, but simply, 'If you continue.' Now, if I am trying to climb a hill, it ma

boy of them but respected her. It is wonderful, after all, how rarely in this wicked world we meet with other than respect in answer to a frank avowal of our determination to be on the Lord's side.

ssy went on. "I like it ever so much for that. 'And ye s

n Wilbur had asked in such anxiety. But Flossy was in a measure prepared f

him any more, and having a strength that is beyond and above anyth

a scornful

s to the existence of such a person. "I think a fellow is a silly coward who lays the blame of his wickedness off on Satan'

she felt instinctively that the most difficult thing in the world is to convince an ignorant person that he has been foolish and illogical in his argument. You may prove this to an intelligent

o be careful how she tried anything of this sort. Besides, there was another reason. She did not know how to set about doing it. It is one thing to see a sophistr

ou and I, for instance, so our perfection cannot save us from the penalty of sin, and that is death. What a grand thing it would be to be free from that! You believ

till in a s

sneeringly. "As near as I can make out, those persons who th

be an accident and I might be killed. But I declare to you that I have found something that has taken the fear away. I do not mean that I would like to be killed, or that I am tired of living, or anything of the sort. I like to live a great deal better than I ever did before; I think the world is twice as nice, and everything a great deal pleasanter; but when I was coming home from Chautauqua I would waken in the night in the sleeping-car, and I foun

e of this simple, quiet "I know?" To say, "I don't belie

egrees of interest; the most of them amused that Rich. should

eat and to wear; in fact they earned these latter, each for himself. There were two of them who had the advantage of the public schools, and were fair sort of schol

r homes, or their lives. She had no sort of idea of the temptations by which they were surrounded, nor what they needed. Perhaps this very fact removed all touch of patronage from he

e been glad to have taught the lesson if I had known how;

ll sorts of curious forms, and he had actually rather gloried in his ability to say rude and cutting things at a moment's notice

are only just learning you better try it again on us; we li

pretty, graceful way, precisely as she would have invited a gentleman friend who had seen her home from a concert, the quiet, courteous invitation to her fath

g what made them feel so, a sudden added touch of self-respect. I almost think they were more car

kine, as, with her cheeks in a fine glow of glad satisf

her more quiet, thoughtful way. She was

een careful probing to see if it had taken root. Ruth had some stronger ideas about the importance of "continuing." She had a renewed sense of the blessedness of being made "free." She went home with