human
Mrs. Sandford! Oh, I'm glad to see you. I was just going to your house.
gpt
And I'm right glad to see you, Mrs. Birtwell. I've been thinking about you all day. Step into the carriage. I shall drive directly home.
human
I heard something to-day that troubles me. I am told that Mr. Ridley, since the death of his wife, has become very intemperate, and that his family are destitute--so much so, indeed, that his daughter has applied to you for the situation of day-governess in order to earn something for their support.
gpt
It is too true, replied Mrs. Sandford.
human
The poor child came to see me in answer to an advertisement.
gpt
Have you engaged her?
human
No. She is too young and inexperienced for the place. But something must be done for her.
gpt
What? Have you thought out anything? You may count on my sympathy and co-operation.
human
The first thing to be done, replied Mrs. Sandford,
gpt
But what will become of her father if you remove his child from him?
human
What will become of her wretched father?
gpt
He is beyond our reach, was answered.
human
When a man falls so low, the case is hopeless. He is the slave of an appetite that never gives up its victims. It is a sad and a sorrowful thing, I know, to abandon all efforts to save a human soul, to see it go drafting off into the rapids with the sound of the cataract in your ears, and it is still more sad and sorrowful to be obliged to hold back the loving ones who could only perish in their vain attempts at rescue. So I view the case. Ethel must not be permitted to sacrifice herself for her father.
gpt
Hopeless! she murmured, at length, in a low voice that betrayed the pain she felt.
human
Surely that cannot be so. While there is life there must be hope. God is not dead.
gpt
But the drunkard seems dead to all the saving influences that God or man can bring to bear upon him,
human
No, no, no! I will not believe it, said Mrs. Birtwell, speaking now with great decision of manner.
gpt
God can and does save to the uttermost all who come unto him.
human
Yes, all who come unto him. But men like Mr. Ridley seem to have lost the power of going to God.
gpt
Then is it not our duty to help them to go? A man with a broken leg cannot walk to the home where love and care await him, but his Good Samaritan neighbor who finds him by the way can help him thither. The traveler benumbed with cold lies helpless in the road, and will perish if some merciful hand does not lift him up and bear him to a place of safety. Even so these unhappy men who, as you say, seem to have lost the power of returning to God, can be lifted up, I am sure, and set down, as it were, in his very presence, there to feel his saving, comforting and renewing power.
human
Perhaps so. Nothing is impossible, said Mrs. Sandford, with but little assent in her voice.
gpt
But who is to lift them up and where will you take them? Let us instance Mr. Ridley for the sake of illustration. What will you do with him? How will you go about the work of rescue? Tell me.