  In the evening at that most entrancing hour between daylight and dark, when all creation seems in a dreamy mood, the Witch found herself at the entrance of a gilded palace of sin. A number of the inmates were flitting about the flower-laden, well-kept grounds. She approached one of exquisite beauty of person whose face was not yet passion-scarred. She was dressed in some soft, flowing, white material which gave her more of a seraphic appearance than one of sensualism. The Witch asked what brought her to this stage of immorality. The woman's reply was that she had been reared in wealth, but her father through some unlucky speculation lost everything. She had never learned to work, but had been taught that any labor was most degrading, and she had not qualified herself to teach any branch of learning, never having made allowance for the swift wings of vanishing wealth. When thrown on her own resources she was at a loss to know what to do, when a wealthy gentleman friend came to her assistance at the sacrifice of her honor. He soon tired of her, however; her father had died broken-hearted, and her mother was staying with a distant relative who had kindly offered her a home. The Witch persuaded her to leave this life of disgrace, to learn honest work and brighten her mother's remaining years. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. II Timothy ii, 15. She said that it would be hard for her to face the world with this stigma of shame on her character; that all those bearing any claim to respectability would scorn her. The Witch told her that God was judge and not the people, and their lives were not altogether blameless. God is the judge. Psalms lxxv, 7. He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. John viii, 7. The woman was undecided, but the better mind prevailed and she accompanied the Witch home, and the next day found respectable employment. And still the good work goes on. Reader, I am only narrating a small portion of this woman's work which she found as the days went by to be illimitable. Vice versa. If one possessing this mysterious power was inclined to evil rather than good, what a great amount of wickedness might be accomplished through it. God only knows how much of the good and evil that has been done in the world may be attributed to this hidden force. Was the famed enchantress of the Nile gifted with this secret to a very great extent, and many other characters of history celebrated in their day for the influence they exercised? |
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