Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/459

 Rh he trusted in him; he knew his promise, and that if he left-house or parents, or brethren, or wife or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, he should receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting. He therefore left all his worldly substance behind him, and fled to a land where he could worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. He waited not to sell houses and lands, and collect money for his support in a foreign country. He firmly believed the promises of God, he saw distinctly the path pointed out by duty to Him, he hesitated not, but followed on.

We know that he experienced many privations and hardships, but in the end he was able to maintain his family, and to give good educations to his children. His descendants have generally been able to do the same.

His manuscript record of his interesting and instructive life, instead of being a dead letter to his descendants like the one named above, has been perused and valued by each successive generation, as it has been handed down from father to son, as a precious and sacred inheritance.

In the other narrative we cannot but observe weakness of faith throughout. In his unmanly desertion of his wife, we first notice it, then in his signing the act of abjuration, and lastly in leaving his daughter in France to collect money for the support of the family.

My own mind is forcibly impressed with the conviction that we have reason to hope for the especial blessing which God has promised to the seed of the righteous. May we all strive to obtain the faith of our forefathers, and so to walk as not to prove degenerate scions from a worthy stock.