"The danger was fearful," replied Mr. Allison, who understood the
meaning of the words which had just been uttered. "But it is past
now."
"Yes, thanks to the infinite wisdom that leads us back into right
paths. Oh! what a life of unimagined wretchedness would have fallen
to her lot, if all my plans and hopes had been accomplished! Do you
know, Mr. Allison, that I have compared my insane purposes in the
past to that of those men of old who made their children pass
through the fire to Moloch? I set up an idol--a bloody Moloch--and
was about sacrificing to it my child!"
"There is One who sits above the blinding vapours of human passion,
and sees all ends from the beginning; One who loves us with an
infinite tenderness, and leads us, even through struggling
resistance, back to the right paths, let us stray never so often.
Happy are we, if, when the right paths are gained, we walk therein
with willing feet. Mr. Markland, your experiences have been of a
most painful character; almost crushed out has been the natural life
that held the soaring spirit fettered to the perishing things of
this outer world; but you have felt that a new and better life has
been born within you, and have tasted some of its purer pleasures.
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