But they are perfectly capable of becoming
home-missionaries as well. The principle of stewardship would make
them so.
I have seen a little girl of thirteen, who had much service, too, to
do for a hard-working mother, in the midst of a circle of poor
children whom she gathered daily to a morning school. She took them
from the door-steps and the gutters; she washed their faces and hands;
she taught them to read and sew, and told them stories that had
delighted her own infancy. In her face, though in feature and
complexion plain, was something already of a Madonna sweetness, and it
had no way eclipsed the gayety of childhood.
I have seen a boy, scarce older, brought up for some time with the
sons of laborers, who, so soon as he found himself possessed of
superior advantages, thought not of surpassing others, but of
excelling that he might be able to impart; and he was able to do it.
If the other boys had less leisure, and could pay for less
instruction, they did not suffer by it. He could not be happy unless
they also could enjoy Milton, and pass from nature to natural
philosophy. He performed, though in a childish way, and in no Grecian
garb, the part of Apollo amidst the herdsmen of Admetus.
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