CHAPTER XIII.

A LONG JOURNEY.

IF I pronounce this disastrous event in Tidy's life another link
in the chain of loving-kindness by which God was leading her
to himself, perhaps you will wonder. But, my dear children,
adversities are designed for this very purpose, and are all directed
in infinite love and wisdom for our good. Tidy had prayed that she
might be free, and the Lord heard, and meant to answer her prayer.
He meant not only to give her the liberty she sought, but, more than that,
to make her soul free in Christ Jesus; but there were some things
she needed to learn first. She was not prepared yet to use her
personal liberty rightly, nor did she at all appreciate or desire
that other and better freedom. Therefore the Lord disappointed
her at this time, and turned the course of her life, as it were,
upside down, that by painful experiences and narrow straits she
might learn what an all-sufficient Friend he could be to her;
that she might learn too the sinfulness of her own heart, and his
free grace and mercy for her pardon and salvation.

God "leads the blind in the way they know not." Tidy knew nothing
of the method by which he was guiding her, and when she found
her hopes crushed, and herself crouching, forlorn and friendless,
weary and half-famished, in a prison, she gave up all for lost.
She felt indeed cast off and forsaken. For hours she sat
and cried despairingly, the pretty dress crumpled and stained
with tears, and the hat which had been so much admired trampled