Free The Silver Horse by Kate Forsyth Page B

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    He wrote to people he knew all around the country, admonishing them, exhorting them to greater efforts, rallying them to his cause, and informing them of the great work he was doing to rid his parish of those treasonous and heathenish elements that sought to undermine the Great Work, like termites chewing at the foundations of a house.
    And so you can see the clear meaning of the verse in which the Lord Our Father declared the great end and design of his mission, Pastor Spurgeon wrote fluidly, namely, not that he should ‘condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved’. The first inference is very sweet and comfortable, and known to us all, in that ‘He that believeth is not condemned’, that is, he who entrusts his lost and ruined soul into God’s hand, although he be a sinner, and a great sinner, he must be absolved and acquitted. God, as his Surety, haspaid the debt, and obtained the discharge under the hand of justice.
    Pastor Spurgeon scattered sand on the page, to dry the ink, dipped his quill into the inkpot, and drew another page to him.
    The second inference, he wrote, is very terrible and awful; and you have it in the understanding of the words, ‘He that believeth not, is condemned already.’ For which there is a very relevant reason given, in the close of the verse: ‘Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’ What this so clearly means is that not believing is therefore a capital crime chargeable upon all gospel hearers. Not only is he condemned in the eyes of the Lord, he is condemned already, for endless eternity.
    Pastor Spurgeon paused for a moment, thinking of the godless Egyptians that he had discovered singing and dancing and begging in the marketplace. He remembered the black-haired girl, her feet bare beneath her skirts, the sun warmon her smooth skin, her sweet voice singing of the rapture of love.
    He could not forgive her for her beauty.
    Pastor Spurgeon wrenched his attention back to his page, read over what he had written, and then added, writing so strongly his nib tore the page, Therefore know that those who deny the word of God serve the Devil in filthiness and folly, and for them there can only be one just punishment for their sins, and that punishment is death.

The Silver Horse

    T he silver horse was no larger than the first knuckle of Emilia’s smallest finger. With all four hooves lifted in a gallop, its tail was lifted high like a banner, and its mane flew in the wind. It was warm from lying against the old gypsy woman’s skin.
    Emilia cradled it in the palm of her hand, staring at it through a swimming haze of tears. Then, her fingers trembling, she hooked the charm onto the golden chain she wore about her wrist, next to the ancient coin her grandmother had given her.
    â€˜An Arab mare in return for an old piece of junk,’ Felipe said in an undertone to his brother. ‘It doesn’t seem fair.’
    Cosmo rubbed his hands together. ‘As long as both parties come out of an agreement happy, that’s all that matters.’
    But Emilia was not happy. She felt as if her heart was breaking. She had helped Alida struggle out of her mother’s womb, she had helped the tiny filly stumble to her feet and find her way to her mother’s side, and she had fed the filly her first handful of grain. Girl and horse had never been separated since. Both were orphans, their mothers cruelly wrested from them. Emilia had thought she would rather die than give her mare away.
    Yet if she did not give Alida up, she would have no chance of freeing her family. Emilia believed in the story of the six lost charms with all her heart. Felipe Hearne might think the littlesilver horse a piece of worthless junk, but Emilia knew that its worth was incalculable, mysterious and unexplainable. To have refused the bargain would have been to have lost all chance of adding it to her chain of charms,