Ella Clinton; or, By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

"Hate you, my child! far from it. I will love you the better for acknowledging your faults. Tell me all about it, and perhaps I may be able to help you to do better."

Ella related all the occurrences of that morning and the previous evening, without attempting any palliation of her own conduct.

"I am very sorry, indeed, to hear all this, Ella," said Miss Layton. "You have really been very naughty. In the first place, you ought not to have climbed the fence; that was very wrong, because you knew that your aunt had forbidden it."

"But Lucy wanted the flowers, and couldn't wait for me to go round to the gate. What could I do, Miss Layton?"

"It would have been much better to let Lucy go without the flowers than to disobey your aunt."

"But, Miss Layton, she always scolds me! I can never please her, and I don't mean to try any more."

"O Ella, Ella! is this the end of all your good resolutions? Who is it that says, 'Honour thy father and thy mother?'"

"But aunt Prudence isn't my mother," said Ella.

"No, my dear, but she occupies the place of a parent to you, and the spirit of the command requires you to obey her."

"I can't please her, Miss Layton. I've tried and tried and tried, and what's the use of trying any more?"

"Ah, Ella, if you had a new heart, if you were a child of God, you would try to do right that you might please him; and you would not give up in despair, though no one else noticed your efforts, or looked upon you with approval. I am afraid, my child, that you love praise too well; that you 'love the praise of men more than the praise of God.'"

"I don't like to mind aunt Prudence! I wish I didn't have to!"

"'This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.' There is the test, Ella; by your fruits you are to be known. God commands you to honour and obey your aunt, and if that command is grievous to you, does it not show that you are not one of his children?"

"I know I'm not, Miss Layton," said Ella, sadly. "I'm afraid I never shall be a Christian, for I'm so very, very wicked, and I can't make myself any better, for I've tried so hard, and I only seem to grow more and more wicked, the more I try to be good."

"I am glad to hear you say so, Ella. I had much rather hear you talk in that way, than as you did last night, because I know that a sense of your own helplessness, of your own utter inability to make yourself any better, is the first step towards feeling your need of the Saviour; for as long as you think that there is any hope that you can heal yourself, you will not apply to the Great Physician. 'Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light!' That invitation is addressed to you, Ella, if you do, as I hope, feel your sins to be a burden."

"I'm afraid it doesn't mean me, Miss Layton, for I'm afraid I don't want to be good. I feel just like giving it up and not trying any more."

"Then, Ella, pray to God to give you the desire; to make you want to be good. Jesus said, 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.'"

"Won't you pray for me, Miss Layton?"

"I do, dear child, and will," said Miss Layton, kissing her; "but you must pray for yourself; I cannot do the work for you – no one can; you must pray and repent and believe for yourself."

"O Miss Layton, I wish I could live with you!" exclaimed Ella, "for then I think I could be good."

Miss Layton smiled. "I am coming to live at your house, my dear; didn't you know it? didn't your aunt tell you?"

"Oh no, ma'am; but are you, really? Oh, I am so glad, so glad!" and Ella clapped her hands, and fairly danced up and down with delight.

"Yes; Mrs. Price is tired of boarding me, and your aunt has agreed to take me for the rest of the time that I shall be here."

"And when will you come, Miss Layton? Oh, do come soon!"

"To-morrow evening, my dear; but, Ella, I shall not like to live with you, if you are going to be such a naughty girl as you were last night and this morning."

"Oh no, indeed, I'll not; I should be ashamed to be so bad before you."

"And do you feel more respect for me– a weak, sinful mortal – than for the great God? more ashamed and afraid to do wrong in my presence, than in his?"

"O Miss Layton, I can't see him, and I forget that he sees me."

"Do you think that that excuse will avail you in the judgment-day, Ella? The Bible tells us, 'The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all they that forget God.' O Ella, when you are tempted to do wrong, remember these words: 'Thou God seest me;' and O my child, never, never dare to do in his presence, what you would be ashamed or afraid to do before any earthly being."

"I'm very sorry I was so naughty," said Ella, "and I'll tell aunt Prudence so, and ask her to forgive me, and I'll do as she bids me, and mend the dress over again if she says I must; though I'm sure I can't do it any better."

"Ask forgiveness of God too, Ella."

"Yes, ma'am, I will."

"I'm sorry I was so naughty and so impertinent to you last night and this morning, aunt Prudence," said Ella, coming up to her aunt, on her return from school. "Will you please to forgive me, and I'll try to mind you next time."

"Oh yes, it's all very well to say you're sorry now, but it'll be just the very same thing again, the very next time you're in a bad humour."

"Shall I rip that darn out, and do it over now, aunt Prudence?"

"No; I've had bother enough with it already; let it alone."

CHAPTER IV

"Just look, Miss Layton, how Ella Clinton has torn my book," said Sallie Barnes, displaying her arithmetic, several leaves of which were missing.

"How do you know that it was Ella that did it?" asked Miss Layton.

"Why, because she hates me; and I heard her say, the other day, that she'd tear my books or do something to spite me, and when I came to school this morning, she was standing right beside my desk, and Abby Reed says she saw her turning my things over before I came, so I'm sure she must have done it."

"It does look like it, certainly," said Miss Layton, "but still I can hardly believe Ella would do such a thing. Come here, Ella. Did you tear this? or do you know how it came to be torn."

"No, ma'am," said Ella, indignantly, "I didn't touch it, and I don't know anything about it."

"Did you go to Sallie's desk, and turn over her things, this morning before school commenced?"

"I didn't turn over the things, Miss Layton. I went to her desk, and looked in her pencil box to see if my slate-pencil was there, but I didn't touch anything else."

"What made you think of looking for your pencil in Sallie's box?"

Ella coloured, and remained silent.

"I want an answer, Ella," said Miss Layton. "You must have had some reason for supposing your pencil was there; what was it?"

"I thought may-be she had hidden it; because the other day I told her something she said was a lie, and she was very angry, and said she would pay me for it," replied Ella.

"And were your suspicions correct? did you find your pencil there?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Ella.

"If she did, she must have put it there first, for I never touched it," said Sallie.

"Hush, Sallie," said Miss Layton. "Ella, are you sure it was your pencil? slate pencils are very much alike, you may have been mistaken."

"No, ma'am, I know it was mine, because I had cut some letters on it," replied Ella.

"I wish you'd look in her desk, Miss Layton," said Sallie, "and see if she hasn't got the leaves of my arithmetic hid there."

Miss Layton rose and went to Ella's desk, raised the lid and examined the contents, while the two girls stood looking on. Presently moving a pile of books, she found several leaves, which had been tucked away behind them, and which, on being compared with Sallie's book, proved to be evidently the missing portion; though one of them had been torn in half, and, from the stains of ink upon it, seemed to have been used for wiping a pen. "I told you so! I knew she'd done it!" exclaimed Sallie, exultingly; while Ella gazed at the leaves in her teacher's hand with an expression of unfeigned astonishment that did not escape Miss Layton's quick eye.

"And she's been using this leaf for a pen-wiper," continued Sallie, "she's always wanting a piece of paper to wipe her pen, because she's so careless she can never keep a pen-wiper."

"How do you account for this strong circumstantial evidence against you, Ella?" asked her teacher.

"I don't know, Miss Layton, I don't know at all how they got there," said Ella, with a bewildered look. "I've been in the school-room ever since it was opened this morning, and I didn't see any body put them there."

"I believe you, Ella," said Miss Layton, "for whatever other faults you may have, I know you to be a perfectly truthful child."

"Oh yes, it's a fine thing to be the teacher's pet!" said Sallie, tossing her head. "You'd be ready enough to believe that I had done such a thing, because you don't like me."

"I should be more ready to believe it of you, than of Ella, Sallie; because, and only because, you have not established the same character for truth. I have more than once had great reason to doubt your word, but never Ella's. A teacher soon discovers whose word she can trust and whose she cannot."

"It's just because she's your favourite," said Sallie, angrily.

"Go to your seat," said Miss Layton, "I will not allow such impertinence, and shall mark you for it in your weekly report. Can any of the rest of you throw any light upon this subject?" she inquired, turning to the other scholars.

"Miss Layton," said the girl who sat next to Sallie, "I think, perhaps Sallie tore her book herself, for I heard her say yesterday, that she would tear out those leaves because she couldn't do the sums."

The girl who kept the key and attended to the room, now came up, and told Miss Layton that Sallie had come to her to borrow the key on the previous evening, saying that she had forgotten her books, and must get them, or she should not know her lessons. "Yes, and I was going after the cows," said Charley Owen, "and I saw the school door open, and I thought may-be somebody was breaking in, so I ran and looked in at the door, and I saw Sallie sitting by Ellie's desk a writing, and she tore a leaf out of a book, and wiped her pen on it, and then she looked at the book awhile, and then tore out some more leaves, and then she raised up the lid and put the ink in the desk, and I guess she put the leaves in too."

"It's all a lie," exclaimed Sallie; "there was nobody here when I was getting my books."

"I just peeped in at the door, and then I ran off, and she didn't see me," said Charley.

"The proof of your guilt is too plain to admit of a doubt," said Miss Layton, turning to the now abashed and confused Sallie. "You will of course remain with me after the rest are dismissed."

"Oh, how shall I talk to that hardened girl!" was the thought which many times presented itself to Miss Layton's mind, while engaged in the duties of the day; and many a silent petition for assistance went up to Him who hath promised wisdom to them that ask it.

At length the hour had arrived, school was dismissed, and the children, always glad to be released from study and confinement, were not long in leaving the teacher alone with her refractory pupil. "Sallie," said Miss Layton, "you know that borrowing is against the rules, how then do you account for the fact of Ella's pencil having been found in your box?"

"What's the use of my answering? you won't believe me, if I do," said Sallie, angrily.

"You must speak more respectfully, Sallie," said Miss Layton, "or I shall feel obliged to inform your parents of your very bad behaviour. I wish you now to answer my question, and tell me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

"I don't know anything about it," replied Sallie, "I didn't put it there, and if Ella Clinton found it in my box, she must have put it there herself."

"Well, Sallie, I cannot tell whether you are speaking the truth or not, but I want you to remember that God knows all about it; for the Bible tells us that 'all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do;' and the Psalmist says, 'O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting, and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo! O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.' God, who is the searcher of the heart, knows all your motives, has seen all your actions, and heard all your words, and in his book of remembrance all these things are written, and for them all, he will call you to account in the day of judgment. Sallie, do you ever read the Bible?"

"I read it sometimes of a Sunday, when I can't find anything I like better."

"I am sorry, Sallie, to hear you speak so slightingly of God's word, which is the Book of books and the one which we should value above all others. But it seems you do read it occasionally – have you ever read the story of Ananias and Sapphira?"

"I don't remember," said Sallie, sulkily.

Miss Layton opened her Bible, and read aloud the story of that wicked man and woman whom God struck dead for telling a lie. As I suppose my little readers have all read this sad story, I shall not repeat it here; but if they have not read it, they will find it in the fifth chapter of Acts, and I hope they will get their Testaments, and read it now, and that they will take warning by the awful punishment of Ananias and Sapphira, and never, never dare to tell a lie.

When Miss Layton had finished reading, she proceeded to talk to Sallie of the great wickedness of her conduct, the dreadful sin of lying, quoting a number of texts to show God's hatred of that sin, such as, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord," "The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a moment," "A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish," "All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," and many others.

"Sallie," said she, "I do not think there is any sin which is mentioned more frequently in the Holy Scriptures, as being exceedingly hateful to God, than that of lying; and we are expressly told that no liar shall be allowed to enter the holy city, the New Jerusalem. 'For,' says the apostle John, 'without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.' You would look with abhorrence upon a murderer – one who had dipped his hands in the blood of his fellow-man – and yet you see that liars are put in the same catalogue, as being no better than they. But have you not really been a murderer in heart this day, Sallie? Have you not felt hatred to Ella, and a desire to do her harm? and is not that the very spirit of murder? 'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer;' and was not that the very feeling that led Cain to kill his brother? You have to-day broken several of God's commandments; the sixth, which is: 'Thou shalt not kill,' for the Bible tells us that anger is a breach of that command; and the ninth, which is: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.'

"Sallie, I should not be doing my duty, if I did not speak to you of the great wickedness of which you have been guilty; if I did not warn you of the necessity of repentance. 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die,' says God. 'He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' 'Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity: I will mock when your fear cometh.' But again, he tells us, 'I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but rather that he turn from his evil way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel!' O Sallie, can you refuse to listen to these awful threatenings, or to accept of these gracious invitations? Would that I could persuade you to turn from your evil ways now– now while you are young, and while you have health and strength and reason – for 'now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation,' and you can be sure of no time but the present."

Much more Miss Layton said to Sallie, but she went home that night with a sad heart, for she could not perceive that her words had made any impression.

When Miss Layton entered her school-room next morning, she found her pupils in quite a state of excitement. "O Miss Layton, Miss Layton!" they exclaimed on seeing her, "Sallie Barnes and her mother have been here getting Sallie's books, and they took them all away, and Mrs. Barnes says, Sallie shan't come to school to you another day, because you talked to her just as if she was the greatest sinner in the world, and she's just as good as other folks. And she's not going to have her abused; she won't let her stay where she's called a liar and a murderer. And Mrs. Barnes says, Sallie never told a lie in all her life, for she knows she'd get half killed if she did; her children are all brought up to speak the truth; and we all know that that's not so, for nobody believes a word that either Sallie or her mother says. Oh, she was very mad, Miss Layton, and scolded away ever so long, and swore too; and she says she's going to give you a piece of her mind when she sees you."

"I am very sorry indeed to hear that any one would behave so wickedly," said Miss Layton, "but if Sallie is such a very bad girl, I am glad she is gone, for the Bible says, 'Evil communications corrupt good manners,' and I fear she might have made some of the rest of you as bad as herself. But if Sallie has such a wicked mother, there is great allowance to be made for her, poor girl! and you should feel very thankful that you have been blest with good mothers, who, instead of encouraging you in wickedness, try to teach you to do right."

CHAPTER V

"If you'll excuse me, Miss Layton, I'll just leave Ella to entertain you, as I have an errand out, but I'll not be gone long," said Miss Prudence Clinton, one evening, soon after Miss Layton had taken up her quarters with her.

"Don't hurry on my account, Miss Clinton; I have no doubt that Ellie and I can entertain each other very well, until you return," replied Miss Layton.

"Very well then, Ella, I shall expect you to do your best," said aunt Prudence, as she went out of the door.

"Will you take a walk with me, Ella?" asked Miss Layton.

"Oh yes, ma'am, I should love to, dearly! I'll get my bonnet in one minute!" exclaimed Ella, bounding out of the room. In less than the specified time she returned with her bonnet in her hand.

"Where shall we go, Ellie?" said Miss Layton; "the sun is nearly down, so we cannot take a very long walk before it will be getting dark."

"Will you come with me to see my mother's grave, Miss Layton? it isn't very far, and the grave-yard is very pretty; there are so many trees, and bushes, and flowers planted round the graves."

"Yes, Ellie, we will go there, if you wish it."

"I love to come here since mother died," said Ella, as they stood by Mrs. Clinton's grave. "Sometimes I sit down on the grass, and lay my head on the grave, and talk to mother, and it seems as if she could hear me; but Oh, I wish she could speak to me! Oh, if I could only put my arms round her neck once more, and give her just one more kiss!" and Ella burst into tears, and laid her face against the cold tomb-stone, while the tears fell like rain on the grass that covered her mother's breast. Miss Layton's tears were falling too.

"Your mother is not here, dear child," said she. "'Tis only the senseless body that lies there, but your mother lives in heaven."

"Yes, I know she does, because she was so good, that I am sure God would take her there."

"You don't mean, my dear child, that God would save her because she was good?"

"Why, yes, Miss Layton; it's the good people that go to heaven, isn't it?"

"My dear Ella, there is none that doeth good and sinneth not; 'they are all gone out of the way; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good – no, not one.'"

"But you said my mother was in heaven!"

"Yes, my dear, but not because she was good, but because Jesus died to save her. 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.' If we were able to save ourselves by our own good works, then Jesus need not have died. No, Ella, we cannot do anything at all to merit salvation, but must accept it as God's free gift, 'not of works, lest any man should boast.' 'By their fruits ye shall know them;' it is not said they shall be saved by their fruits, but by them they are to be known; they are the evidence of their acceptance with God. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved:' we are to be saved by faith, not by works; but unless we do good works, unless we love God's commandments and try to keep them, we have no reason to think we have any faith, for it must be a living faith that saves us, and the apostle James tells us that 'faith without works is dead.' Your mother professed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and she showed by her works that hers was not a dead faith, and therefore we may rest assured that she is in heaven; but if she had expected to be saved on account of her own good deeds, we could have had no such assurance concerning her."

"I think I understand it now, Miss Layton," said Ella, "and I remember that mother always seemed to think herself very wicked, though I don't think I ever saw her do anything wrong; but she said she was not afraid to die, because Jesus had died to save her."

"Yes, Ella, this is the experience of all true Christians. But come, it is time for us to be going; it is growing quite dark, and the stars are beginning to come out in the sky."

"How pretty the stars are! Miss Layton," said Ella, gazing up into the sky; "I love to look at them. Mother used to like to look at them too, and she told me that some of them were great large worlds, a great deal bigger than ours, and some were suns with worlds moving around them. Miss Layton, what is that white streak up in the sky, that they call the Milky-way? I asked aunt Prudence the other evening, and she said, 'Nonsense! go away, and don't bother me with such silly questions.' Do you think it's a silly question, Miss Layton?"

"No, my dear, not at all silly. The Milky-way is said to be composed of millions of stars, which, though they are very large indeed, are at such an immense distance from us as to appear very small, and though they are at great distances from each other, so much farther are they from our world, that they look to us as though they were quite close together, and the rays of light coming from such a multitude of stars, mingle together, and cause that white appearance."

"How very great and wise God must be, to be able to take care of so many worlds at once!" said Ella.

"And remember, Ella, that he not only keeps all these worlds in their orbits, but takes the same care of each one of the innumerable beings which inhabit them, as though there was but that one for him to watch over and protect. You recollect that Jesus said, 'Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.' Then we need not fear that we are too insignificant for God to notice, or that he will forget us, because he has so many creatures to care for."

"How strange," said Ella, "that God can see everything, and take care of everybody, when he has so many, so very many people to watch!"