Her version of the
matter was that there had never yet been two parents so self-denying
and devoted to the highest welfare of their children as Theobald and
herself. For Ernest, a very great future- she was certain of it- was
in store. This made severity all the more necessary, so that from
the first he might have been kept pure from every taint of evil. She
could not allow herself the scope for castle building which, we
read, was indulged in by every Jewish matron before the appearance
of the Messiah, for the Messiah had now come, but there was to be a
millennium shortly, certainly not later than 1866 when Ernest would be
about the right age for it, and a modern Elias would be wanted to
herald its approach. Heaven would bear her witness that she had
never shrunk from the idea of martyrdom for herself and Theobald,
nor would she avoid it for her boy, if his life was required of her in
her Redeemer's service. Oh, no! If God told her to offer up her
first-born, as He had told Abraham, she would take him up to Pigbury
Beacon and plunge the- no, that she could not do, but it would be
unnecessary- someone else might do that. It was not for nothing that
Ernest had been baptised in water from the Jordan.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161