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This is one of Mrs. Sherwood's Moral and family tales, fervently religious and moral short stories written for children, in which their own innate sinfulness is emphasised, as well as the dire consequences which will befall them if they slip from the path of rigorous Christian virtue. The Tales sold in large numbers, and were extremely popular (among well-meaning adults) as Sunday school prizes and Sunday reading in God-fearing households.
The full text can be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 110kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option. Link to the full text of The history of Lucy Clare from Moral and family tales.
How sweetly was she accustomed to talk with me on a Sunday evening, even when I was a very little child, upon heavenly things!…But when she endeavoured to describe the miraculous manner in which "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory;" when she unfolded the wonderful means which mercy and truth met together, while justice and peace kissed each other, my heart, by the grace of God, was often so much melted under a sense of the Redeemer's love, as to draw floods of tears from my eyes.
With such a childhood, it's perhaps not surprising that Lucy Clare grows up to live her life according to the divine will, accepting all that happens to her as being sent by God, and rejoicing in it. Her much loved cousin, James, having started down the road to misery by taking to drink, then enlists as a soldier, elopes with the flirtatious Sally Page, and disappears from Lucy's life for ten years. What happens when he eventually comes back is, to anyone who has read any of Mrs. Sherwood's stories, predictable--repentance, forgiveness, death and redemption for James, and as for Lucy:
How happy have the last eighteen years of my life been spent! Oh, how greatly, even in this life, have all my early sorrows been repaid! while through the mercy of God I have still greater things in view.
Page created 26 November 2002 and last
updated 26 November 2002
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