"Oh ye of
little faith!" were the first words that flew from his lips--he
knew not whether uttered concerning himself or the charwoman the
more; and at once he fell to speaking of him who said the words,
and of the people that came to him and heard him gladly;--how
this one, whom he described, must have felt, Oh, if that be true!
how that one, whom also he described, must have said, Now he means
me! and so laid bare the secrets of many hearts, until he had
concluded all in the misery of being without a helper in the world,
a prey to fear and selfishness and dismay. Then he told them how
the Lord pledged himself for all their needs--meat and drink and
clothes for the body, and God and love and truth for the soul, if
only they would put them in the right order and seek the best first.
Next he spoke a parable to them--of a house and a father and his
children. The children would not do what their father told them,
and therefore began to keep out of his sight. After a while they
began to say to each other that he must have gone out, it was so
long since they had seen him--only they never went to look. And
again after a time some of them began to say to each other that they
did not believe they had ever had any father. But there were some
who dared not say that--who thought they had a father somewhere
in the house, and yet crept about in misery, sometimes hungry and
often cold, fancying he was not friendly to them, when all the time
it was they who were not friendly to him, and said to themselves
he would not give them anything.
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