Whats Mines Mine, vol 3 | Page 3

is
the plucked rose. Religion without love--there is no such thing.
Religion is the bush that bears all the roses; for religion is the natural
condition of man in relation to the eternal facts, that is the truths, of his
own being. To live is to love; there is no life but love. What shape the
love puts on, depends on the persons between whom is the relation. The
poorest love with religion, is better, because truer, therefore more
lasting, more genuine, more endowed with the possibility of
persistence--that is, of infinite development, than the most passionate
devotion between man and woman without it.
Thus together in their relation to Ian, it was natural that Mercy and the
chief should draw yet more to each other. Mercy regarded Alister as a
big brother in the same class with herself, but able to help her. Quickly
they grew intimate. In the simplicity of his large nature, the chief talked

with Mercy as openly as a boy, laying a heart bare to her such that, if
the world had many like it, the kingdom of heaven would be more than
at hand. He talked as to an old friend in perfect understanding with him,
from whom he had nothing to gain or to fear. There was never a
compliment on the part of the man, and never a coquetry on the part of
the girl--a dull idea to such as without compliment or coquetry could
hold no intercourse, having no other available means. Mercy had never
like her sister cultivated the woman's part in the low game; and her
truth required but the slightest stimulus to make her incapable of it.
With such a man as Alister she could use only a simplicity like his; not
thus to meet him would have been to decline the honouring friendship.
Dark and plain, though with an interesting face and fine eyes, she had
received no such compliments as had been showered upon her sister; it
was an unspoiled girl, with a heart alive though not yet quite awake,
that was brought under such good influences. What better influences
for her, for any woman, than those of unselfish men? what influences
so good for any man as those of unselfish women? Every man that
hears and learns of a worthy neighbour, comes to the Father; every man
that hath heard and learned of the Father comes to the Lord; every man
that comes to the Lord, he leads back to the Father. To hear Ian speak
one word about Jesus Christ, was for a true man to be thenceforth truer.
To him the Lord was not a theological personage, but a man present in
the world, who had to be understood and obeyed by the will and heart
and soul, by the imagination and conscience of every other man. If
what Ian said was true, this life was a serious affair, and to be lived in
downright earnest! If God would have his creatures mind him, she must
look to it! She pondered what she heard. But she went always to Alister
to have Ian explained; and to hear him talk of Ian, revealed Alister to
her.
When Mercy left the cottage, she felt as if she were leaving home to
pay a visit. The rich house was dull and uninteresting. She found that
she had immediately to put in practice one of the lessons she had
learned--that the service of God is the service of those among whom he
has sent us. She tried therefore to be cheerful, and even to forestall her
mother's wishes. But life was harder than hitherto--so much more was
required of her.
The chief was falling thoroughly in love with Mercy, but it was some

time before he knew it. With a heart full of tenderness toward
everything human, he knew little of love special, and was gradually
sliding into it without being aware of it. How little are we our own!
Existence is decreed us; love and suffering are appointed us. We may
resist, we may modify; but we cannot help loving, and we cannot help
dying. We need God to keep us from hating. Great in goodness, yea
absolutely good, God must be, to have a right to make us--to compel
our existence, and decree its laws! Without his choice the chief was
falling in love. The woman was sent him; his heart opened and took her
in. Relation with her family was not desirable, but there she was! Ian
saw, but said nothing. His mother saw it too.
"Nothing good will come of it!" she said, with a strong feeling of
unfitness in the thing.
"Everything will come of it, mother, that God would have come of it,"
answered Ian. "She is an honest, good girl, and whatever