FullReads

“‘Christ’s love rebukes no home-love, breaks no
tie of kin apart;
Better heresy in doctrine, than heresy of heart.

“‘Tell me not the Church must censure: she who
wept the Cross beside
Never made her own flesh strangers, nor the claims
of blood denied;

“‘And if she who wronged her parents, with her
child atones to them,
Earthly daughter, Heavenly Mother! thou at least
wilt not condemn!’

“So, upon her death-bed lying, my blessed mother
spake;
As we come to do her bidding, So receive us for her
sake.”

“God be praised!” said Goodwife Garvin, “He taketh,
and He gives;
He woundeth, but He healeth; in her child our
daughter lives!”

“Amen!” the old man answered, as he brushed a
tear away,
And, kneeling by his hearthstone, said, with reverence,
“Let us pray.”

All its Oriental symbols, and its Hebrew pararphrase,
Warm with earnest life and feeling, rose his prayer
of love and praise.

But he started at beholding, as he rose from off
his knee,
The stranger cross his forehead with the sign of
Papistrie.

“What is this?” cried Farmer Garvin. “Is an English
Christian’s home
A chapel or a mass-house, that you make the sign
of Rome?”

Then the young girl knelt beside him, kissed his
trembling hand, and cried:
Oh, forbear to chide my father; in that faith my
mother died!

“On her wooden cross at Simcoe the dews and
sunshine fall,
As they fall on Spurwink’s graveyard; and the
dear God watches all!”

The old man stroked the fair head that rested on
his knee;
“Your words, dear child,” he answered, “are God’s
rebuke to me.

“Creed and rite perchance may differ, yet our
faith and hope be one.
Let me be your father’s father, let him be to me
a son.”

When the horn, on Sabbath morning, through the
still and frosty air,
From Spurwink, Pool, and Black Point, called to
sermon and to prayer,

To the goodly house of worship, where, in order
due and fit,
As by public vote directed, classed and ranked the
people sit;

Mistress first and goodwife after, clerkly squire
before the clown,
“From the brave coat, lace-embroidered, to the gray
frock, shading down;”

From the pulpit read the preacher, “Goodman
Garvin and his wife
Fain would thank the Lord, whose kindness has
followed them through life,

“For the great and crowning mercy, that their
daughter, from the wild,
Where she rests (they hope in God’s peace), has
sent to them her child;

“And the prayers of all God’s people they ask,
that they may prove
Not unworthy, through their weakness, of such
special proof of love.”

As the preacher prayed, uprising, the aged couple
stood,
And the fair Canadian also, in her modest maiden-
hood.

Thought the elders, grave and doubting, “She is
Papist born and bred;”
Thought the young men, “‘T is an angel in Mary
Garvin’s stead!”