Nothing but Money! CHAPTER 6.
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After tea, Doctor Hofland spent the evening with his wife, reading and conversing in their little parlor. Patients were not in abundance yet, and he had time on his hands. They talked of many things, and dwelt, with hope and interest, on their future. Like Adam Guyton, Doctor Hofland had visions of advancement in the world; of success in his profession; of accumulation. He looked forward to the day when a widely extended practice would give him a liberal income, influence, and position — looked forward, selfishly, as all men in whom natural life has not become subordinated to a spiritual and regenerate life, look. But, unlike his friend, Adam Guyton — his thought did not center upon and revolve onlyaround himself. He had generous thoughts and purposes toward others — humanitarian ends — aspirations that included the common good. Sordid love of money was not an element of his nature. He had no desire to accumulate, merely for the sake of riches, and the selfish independence of the world their possession would give. As thought went forward to the time when he would have money at command, and influence among men — he loved to dwell on embryo schemes of social good — benevolent, educational, or industrial. Means to ends, he did not see clearly. That time was yet to arrive. He was young and immature. But the germs of good citizenship were in his heart, and fructifying life was beginning to stir their latent forces with a prophecy of things to come.
"If I were only rich!" How often did this sentence fall from his lips, as he looked on poverty and suffering, or contemplated the mental and moral destitution around him. And there were times when, in the ardor of his desire to relieve need, or help forward in some good enterprise, he imagined himself free from selfishness, and willing to devote all his powers to the service of others. In this, though it was but an ideal state of good, there was given a reward. Into even the desire to benefit others, flows a blessing — how much higher the blessing for those who make desire an ultimate actuality.
"If I were only rich!" There is not a moment of time in which this aspiration does not rise from some heart dissatisfied with the amount of possession God has given. "If I were only rich!" said Doctor Hofland, as he sat in his little earthly paradise that evening, "the world would be better for at least one life. I would not hoard my money for spendthrift heirs, nor mortuary endowments — but scatter blessings as I passed along. Rich men are God's almoners. Alas! how few are conscious of their responsibility, or dream that a day of reckoning must come."
The doctor's mind was excited, and his imagination fast bearing him away. But, a word from his wife drew him back again, and his wings drooped from their airy flight.
"God only requires a use of the talents given," said she. "Are we not all almoners in our sphere of life?"
"Truly said, Diane! and I stand reproved."
"No, no, not reproved." There was a tone of deprecation on Diane's lips.
"Corrected, then, darling. Thank you for clipping the wings of my too aspiring imagination. It is even as you have said; God only requires a use of the talents bestowed. I am rich! Rich in the power to do good. I have but to dispense freely, according to the ability He has given. Like to many others, I look away from my present sphere of life, and long for a wider field and higher opportunities. But, if not faithful in what is least — then how can I expect to be trusted in greater things."
"Ah, if we could always keep that thought in mind, how much more of peaceful life would be ours. 'Faithful today!' Let that be our motto, Edward. 'Faithful today!' "
The eyes of Dr. Hofland turned from the face of his wife, and a sigh fluttered softly on his lips.
"Is not that the right doctrine?" Mrs. Hofland leaned toward her husband, and laid a hand gently on his arm.
"Yes, darling. It is the true doctrine. 'Faithful today!' and an impressive sense of its truth has sobered me. 'Faithful today!' Ah! it is this looking beyond today — this living in our tomorrows, that is such a hindrance to useful life. We foolishly reserve strength for the future, instead of putting it all forth in our todays. 'Faithful today!' You have expressed life's true philosophy in its simplest formula. Let us accept the axiom as our rule of conduct. If our present work is always taken up and faithfully done — we need have no anxiety about the future. As servants of the Heavenly Master, whose hands never lie idle, the right work for us to do will be given in the right time. He knows what is best for us, and best for those to whom good is to come through our life in this world."
"I do not think," said Diane, "that we shall ever be happier than now. Oh, is not life sweet to us?" And her bright face grew sunnier. "God was good to me when he put love in your heart, Edward. I pray to become worthy of your love."
"If eye sees to eye, and heart beats to heart, darling, ever as now — life shall be to us one long, sweet day of happiness," returned the young husband, breathing the words on Diane's lips. "There will be care and toil; hope and disappointment; sorrow and pain — but, with a love in our hearts growing purer, stronger, and more heavenly in its origin all the while, we shall never sit in darkness — shall never be comfortless."
"Purer and more heavenly," said Diane, as her eyes expressed deeper meanings, "the words bring back what our minister said yesterday, that true marriage was a union of souls. 'What God joins together,' he said, had a significance deeper than came to the common apprehension. God conjoins in marriage by means of spiritual affinities, and these are heavenly. Without a good life, he argued, no true inner marriage was possible. There might be a likeness and a nearness of souls from natural affinities; but genuine inner marriage is conjunction which made of two minds, male and female, one harmoniously pulsating unity."
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