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Original.

THE RIDDLE SOLVED.


Some years since, the pastor of a country congregation in a neighboring
State was riding through his parish in company with a ministerial
friend. As they passed a certain house, the pastor said to his friend,
"Here is a riddle which I wish you would solve for me. In yonder house
lives one of my elders, a man of sterling piety and great consistency of
character, who prays in his closet, in his family, and in public. He has
seven or eight children, several of whom are grown up, and yet not one
is hopefully converted, or even at all serious. Just beyond him, on the
adjoining farm, lives a man of the same age, who married the elder's
sister. This man, if a Christian at all, is one of those who will 'be
saved so as by fire;' he is very loose and careless in his talk, is in
bad repute for honesty, and, although not guilty of any offense which
church authorities can take hold of, does many things which grieve the
people of God, and are a stumbling-block to others. Yet, of his eleven
or twelve children, seven are valued and useful Christians, and there is
every reason to anticipate that the rest, as they grow up, will follow
in the same course. Now, solve me this difficulty, that the careless
professor should be so blessed in his family, while the godly man mourns
an entire absence of converting grace, especially as both households are
as nearly equal as may be in their social position, their educational
facilities, and their means of grace?"