BELLE JARS THE "SYSTEM"


Some orthodox divines would have given Clara a version of the story
of life quite different from that which she received from Mildred.
Many divines, not orthodox, would have made the divergence much
wider. The poor girl, so bruised in spirit and broken in heart, was
not ready for a system of theology or for the doctrine of evolution;
and if any one had begun to teach the inherent nobleness and
self-correcting power of humanity, she would have shown him the
door, feeble as she was. But when Mildred assured her that if Christ
were in the city, as He had been in Capernaum, He would climb the
steep, dark stairs to her attic room and say to her, "Daughter, be
of good comfort"--when she was told that Holy Writ declared that
He was the "same yesterday, to-day, and forever"--her heart became
tender and contrite, and therefore ready for a Presence that is
still "seeking that which was lost."

Men may create philosophies, they may turn the Gospel itself into
a cold abstraction, but the practical truth remains that the Christ
who saves, comforts, and lifts the intolerable burden of sorrow or
of sin, comes now as of old--comes as a living, loving, personal
presence, human in sympathy, divine in power. As Mildred had said,
our need and our consciousness of it form our strongest claim upon
Him and the best preparation for Him.

Clara was proving the truth of her words. Life could never be to
her again merely a bitter, sullen struggle for bread. A great hope
was dawning, and though but a few rays yet quivered through the