‘Yes, I remember. Come this way.’
He led the child into his drawing-room in front of a large mirror reaching down to the ground, and told him to find his enemy there.
‘Why, it’s only myself!’ Teddy said in a disappointed tone, though there was wonder in his eyes.
’That’s it—yourself—small Teddy Platt is your worst enemy, and the older you live the more you will discover what a very formidable and mighty enemy he is.’
‘Please, sir, I don’t understand.’
’Sit down here, by me, and let me try to explain it to you. If you are going to try to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find that you will have two Teddies to deal with—a good one and a bad one. The bad one is your enemy. Now, you told me you were angry with that little girl. Are you angry still?’
‘I’ve forgotten all about her. I—I don’t love her.’
’The bad Teddy in you doesn’t like her, but the good Teddy will. Now you must fight against the bad Teddy, and overcome him. Jesus will help you; you can’t fight without Him.’
‘I think I know,’ said Teddy thoughtfully. ’Last week some fellow said, “Come and get some apples from the Park orchard.” I wanted to, dreadful. That was my bad self, but I thought it would be stealing, and I didn’t go. That was my good self, wasn’t it?’
’Quite right! Keep close to your Captain. Our Officer always leads, and remember—“Forward! no quarter to the enemy!"’
Then gazing abstractedly out into the garden, Mr. Upton added, as if to himself, ’But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.... Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.’
The next day when at dinner, for it was generally at meal-times Teddy chose to make his observations, he looked round the table appealingly,—
‘What’s the very ugliest name that could be given a boy?’
‘Sakes alive!’ ejaculated his grandmother. ’And who may you be wanting to christen?’
’It isn’t for a baby; a boy about as old as me. What do you think’s an ugly name?’
‘I don’t think any name is very ugly,’ his mother said. ’If you like a person, their name always seems to fit. I knew two boys named Tobiah and Eli. I didn’t like the names at first, though they are Bible ones, but when I got to know and like the boys I liked the names.’
‘I want a much more hideous name,’ asserted Teddy; ’some name that would describe a very wicked person.’
‘I hope you are not going to call any one by it,’ observed his grandmother suspiciously.
Teddy lifted his blue eyes up to her solemnly. ’I expect I’ll find one for myself,’ he said; and nothing more could be got out of him.