at I had never worn common things; and I knew that in the
merino, properly made, I should have looked my mother's child; and
that in the plaid my mother would not know me. Was I right? was I
wrong? I knelt down before the fire, feeling that the straight path
was not always easy to find. Yet I had thought I saw it before me. I
knelt before the fire, which was the only light in the room, and
opened the page of my dear little book that had the Bible lessons for
every day. This day's lesson was headed, "That ye adorn the doctrine
of God our Saviour in all things."

The mist began to clear away. Between adorning and being adorned, the
difference was so great, it set my face quite another way directly. I
went on. "Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of
Christ."

And how should that be? Certainly, the spirit of that gospel had no
regard to self-glorification; and had most tender regard to the wants of
others. I began to feel sure that I was in the way and not out of it.
Then came--"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. But
let none of you suffer ... _as a thief, or as an evildoer_"--"Let your
light so shine before men"--"Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind
them about thy neck;"--"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honest, whatsoever things are _just_ ... think on these things."

The words came about me, binding up my doubts, making sound my heart,
laying a soft touch upon every rough spot in my thoughts. True,
honest, just, lovely, and of good report,--yes, I would think on these
things, and I would not be turned aside from them. And if I suffered
as a Christian, I determined that I would not be ashamed; I prayed
that I might never; I would take as no dishonour the laughter or the
contempt of those who did not see the two sides of the question; but
as a _thief_ I would not suffer. I earnestly prayed that I might not.
No beauty of dresses or stylishness of coats or bonnets should adorn
me, the price of which God saw belonged and was due to the sufferings
of others; more especially to the wants of those whose wants made my
supply. That my father and mother, with the usage of old habit, and
the influence of universal custom, should be blind to what I saw so
clearly, made no difference in my duty. I had the light of the Bible
rule, which was not yet, I knew, the lamp to their feet. _I_ must walk
by it, all the same. And my thought went back now with great
tenderness to Ma