It has been my doing, my mistake, my sin. I ought to
have known better. Now, let us stand firm on the truth. You have
no new fault to repent of. Be brave and faithful. It is to God
you answer, not to men. The shame of having your sin known to the
world, should be as nothing to the shame you felt at having
sinned. We have dreaded men too much, and God too little, in the
course we have taken. But now be of good cheer. Perhaps you will
have to find your work in the world very low--not quite working
in the fields," said he, with a gentle smile, to which she,
downcast and miserable, could give no response. "Nay, perhaps,
Ruth," he went on, "you may have to stand and wait for some time;
no one may be willing to use the services you would gladly
render; all may turn aside from you, and may speak very harshly
of you. Can you accept all this treatment meekly, as but the
reasonable and just penance God has laid upon you--feeling no
anger against those who slight you, no impatience for the time to
come (and come it surely will--I speak as having the word of God
for what I say), when He, having purified you, even as by fire,
will make a straight path for your feet? My child, it is Christ
the Lord who has told us of this infinite mercy of God. Have you
faith enough in it to be brave, and bear on, and do rightly in
patience and in tribulation?"
Ruth had been hushed and very still until now, when the pleading
earnestness of his question urged her to answer.
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