THE rich Jewish merchant, Isaac Barnard, had an only son named Mark, for whom he engaged a tutor. His only care was to have the knowledge that this tutor possessed the necessary qualifications to educate Mark as befitted his station; so Reginald Stevenson was chosen, and he became an inmate of this Jewish home, where wealth and luxury abounded.
Sarah Barnard, Mark's mother, was a gentle lady, and since the day she had stood with Isaac underneath the canopy erected in her father's drawing-room for the marriage ceremony, no earthly care had set on her brow. On that day, Isaac, then dark and handsome, and just on the threshold of manhood, had trampled into fragments the glass goblet which had contained the wine shared by himself and bride. The scattered fragments showed to the guests that, as that broken goblet could never be one again, so Isaac and Sarah could never be disunited.
The young wife, indeed, had no care, if wealth could prevent it. But even this is no barrier, where God intends that His glorious gospel should shine. He has ways and means, even to shed its rays in the palace of a Caesar.
Reginald Stevenson was a Christian, and had been earnestly praying that a way might be opened, whereby he might have a sphere of service for his Master. The request was granted, as we have seen, and Reginald was installed as Mark's tutor.
After the usual hours of study, he repaired to his own private apartments, and often was he seen studying the Holy Writ, which had been handed down to him by the race in whose house he had now found a home. Reginald was a high-souled, intellectual young man. He had been brought up under the influence of a Christian father and sainted mother, who were now in the realms of the blest. As you beheld his smooth, intellectual brow, eyes full of fire of genius, still with a calm, heaven-born expression, you would be led to think that the pupil must be blest indeed with such a teacher; and so this youth most certainly was. His heart, naturally warm and impulsive, had entwined itself around the heart of his teacher, and these two found in this Jewish home sweet companionship.
The teacher felt his responsibility in educating this Jewish lad, not only mentally, but morally, so to the All-Powerful he went for wisdom, and his request was granted; and the Jewish youth, amidst the fashion, display, and worldliness of his parental abode, was beginning to find out that life has another goal unto which both young and old were all hastening. He delighted to gaze on the calm, noble expression of his teacher, and he felt that Reginald possessed something that his relatives or himself knew nothing of—what that was, indeed, he was at a loss to know. He longed to know each day. He made up his mind to inquire of Reginald, and at last an opportunity offered.
Mark took a row on the lake in his father's grounds, and then moored the boat in a secluded spot, thinking he would sit down and decide how he could broach the subject to his tutor, when whom did he see, seated in the very spot he had chosen, but Reginald himself, earnestly reading! And so absorbed was he, that he did not observe the approach of his pupil until almost close to where he was reclining.
Reginald looked up and beheld Mark's bright smile. The latter seated himself near his teacher, and without any apology, and, in his own frank way, asked him what he possessed so different from any person else around him.
Reginald said, "I have eternal life in Christ, and the knowledge of this and of the One who bestows it, sends a sweet peace into my soul, that this world can never give or take away." And then, in warm and earnest language, he told him the story of a Savior's love.