Page:Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1888).djvu/255

 Then the prisoner burst into tears, and exclaimed, ‘‘Oh, how could I imagine such mercy and forgiveness! I expected pain and torment. It seemed to me so sure, that I took poison, which I secretly carried about me; and in a few hours its effects will destroy me. I must die! Nothing can save me! But before I die, explain to me the teaching which is so full of love and mercy, so great and God-like. Oh, that I may hear this teaching, and die a Christian!” And his prayer was granted.

This was the legend which the master read out of the old story-book. Every one in the house who was present listened, and shared the pleasure; but Sarah, the Jewish girl, sitting so still in a corner, felt her heart burn with excitement. Great tears came into her shining, dark eyes; and with the same gentle piety with which she had once listened to the gospel while sitting on the form at school, she felt its grandeur now, and the tears rolled down her cheeks. Then the last words of her dying mother rose before her, “Let not my child become a Christian;” and with them sounded in her heart the words of the law, “Honour thy father and thy mother.”

“I am not admitted among the Christians,” she said; “they mock me as a Jewish girl; the neighbours’ boys did so last Sunday when I stood looking in through the open church door at the candles burning on the altar, and listening to the singing. Ever since I sat on the school-bench I have felt the power of Christianity; a power which, like a sunbeam, streams into my heart, however closely I may close my eyes against it. But I will not grieve thee, my mother, in thy grave. I will not be unfaithful to my father’s vow. I will not read the Bible of the Christians. I have the God of my fathers, and in Him I will trust.”

And again years passed by. Sarah’s master died, and his widow found herself in such reduced circumstances that she wished to dismiss her servant-maid; but Sarah refused to leave the house, and she became a true support in time of trouble, and kept the household together by working till late, at night, with her busy hands, to earn their daily bread. Not a relative came forward to assist them, and the widow was confined to a sick bed for months and grew weaker from day to day. Sarah worked hard, but contrived to spare time to amuse her and watch by the sick bed. She was gentle and pious, an angel of blessing in that house of poverty.

“My Bible lies on the table yonder,” said the sick woman one day to Sarah. “Read me something from it; the night appears so long, and my spirit thirsts to hear the word of God.”

And Sarah bowed her head. She took the book, and folded her hands over the Bible of the Christians, and at last opened it, and read to the sick woman. Tears stood in her eyes as she read, and they shone with brightness, for in her heart it was light.

“Mother,” she murmured, “thy child may not receive Christian baptism, nor be admitted into the congregation of Christian people. Thou hast so willed it, and I will respect thy command. We are therefore still united here on earth; but in the next world there will be a higher union, even with God himself, who leads and guides His people till death. He came down from heaven to earth to suffer for us, that we should bring forth fruits of