Peter would have gone down
hopelessly in the Sea of Galilee if he had depended on himself
alone. Only the divine Saviour, on whom he called and in whom he
trusted, could save him; and so it is in the case of men like Mr.
Ridley who try to walk over the sea of temptation. Peter's
despairing cry of 'Save, Lord, or I perish,' must be theirs also if
they would keep from sinking beneath the angry waters, and no one
ever calls sincerely upon God for help without receiving it. That
Mr. Ridley is sincere I have no doubt, and herein lies my great
confidence."
At the end of a week Blanche returned from her wedding-tour, and was
received by her parents with love and tenderness instead of
reproaches. These last, besides being utterly useless, would have
pushed the young husband away from them and out of the reach of any
saving influences it might be in their power to exercise.
The hardest trial now for Mrs. Birtwell was the separation from
Blanche, whose daily visits were a poor substitute for the old
constant and close companionship. If there had not been a cloud in
the sky of her child's future, with its shadow already dimming the
brightness of her young life, the mother's heart would have still
felt an aching and a void, would have been a mourner for love's lost
delights and possessions that could nevermore return. But to all
this was added a fear and, dread that made her soul grow faint when
thought cast itself forward into the coming time.
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