CHAPTER II
LOVE KNOWN
Hour after hour passed. The storm was dying away, and at times, throughbroken rifts in the clouds, stars would gleam out. Instead of thecontinued roar and rush, the wind blew in gusts at longer intervals,and nature seemed like a passionate child that had cried itself tosleep. The fitful blasts were the involuntary sobs that heave thebreast, till at last quiet and peace take the place of stormy anger.
It seemed as if the silent watcher never could withdraw her gaze fromthe beautiful world of her vision. Never had it seemed so near andreal before, and she was unconscious of the lapse of time. Suddenlyshe heard her name called--"Ethel!"
If the voice had come from the imaginary world present to her fancy,it could not have startled her more for a moment. Then she realizedthat it was her husband who spoke. He had called her name in his sleep,and yet it seemed a call of God. At once it flashed through her mindthat in dreaming of a glorious and happy future she was forgetting himand his need.
She turned the light upon his face. Never had he looked so pale andwan, and she realized that he might be near his end. In an agony ofself-reproach and yearning tenderness she kneeled at his bedside andprayed as she never had prayed before. Could he go home? Could he bereceived, feeling toward his Father as he did? He had talked offorgiving, when he stood so sorely in need of Christ's forgiveness;and she had been forgetting that need, when every moment might involveher husband's salvation. Out of his sleep he had called her to hishelp. Perhaps God had used his unconscious lips to summon her. Witha faith naturally strong, but greatly increased by the vision of thenight, she went, as it were, directly into the presence of her Lord,and entreated in behalf of her husband.
As she thus knelt at the bedside, with her face buried in the covering,she felt a hand placed softly on her head, and again her husband'svoice called, "Ethel!"
She looked up and saw that he was awake now, his eyes fixed on herwith an expression of softness and tenderness that she had not seenfor many a long day. The old restless, anxious light had gone.
"What were you doing, Ethel?" he asked. "Praying that you might seethat God loved you--that you might be reconciled to Him."
Two great tears gathered in the man's eyes. His lips quivered a moment,then he said, brokenly, "Surely God must love me, or He would neverhave given me--a wife--who would watch and pray for me--the longwinter night."
"Oh, Dennis, forgive me; I cannot deceive you; for a time I forgotyou, I forgot everything, and just wandered through Paradise alone.But in your sleep you called me to your help, and now it seems as ifI could not be happy even there without you. I pray you, in Christ'sstead, be reconciled to God," she pleaded, falling into the familiarlanguage of Scripture, as she often did under strong emotion. Then,in low, thrilling words, she portrayed to him the "new earth" of hervision, wherein "God shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be nomore death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any morepain." She showed him that all might still be well--that eternity waslong enough to make up for the ills of our brief troubled life here.But his mind seemed preoccupied. These future joys did not take thathold upon him that she earnestly desired. His eyes seemed to grow dimin tender, tearful wistfulness, rather than become inspired withimmortal hopes. At last he spoke:
"Ethel, it seemed as if I heard some one calling me. I woke up--andthere you--were praying--for me. I heard my name--I heard God'sname--and I knew that you were interceding for me. It seemed to breakmy hard heart right up like the fountains of the great deep to see youthere--praying for me--in the cold, cold room." (The room was notcold; it was not the winter's chill that he was feeling, but a chillthat comes over the heart even in the tropical summer.) "Then, as youprayed, a great light seemed to shine into my soul. I saw that I hadbeen charging God unjustly with all my failures and misfortunes, whenI had to thank myself for them. Like a wilful child, I had been actingas if God had but to carry out my wild schemes. I remembered all myunreasonable murmurings and anger; I remembered the dreadful words Iwas on the point of uttering tonight, and for a moment it seemed asif the pit would open and swallow me up."
He paused for breath, and then went on:
"But as my despairing eyes glanced restlessly around, they fell uponthe face of my son, noble and beautiful even in sleep, and I rememberedhow God had brought him safely back. Then your low, pleading tone fixedmy attention again. It seemed to me that God's love must be better andstronger than human love, and yet you had loved me through all my follyand weakness; so perhaps had He. Then I felt that such a prayer as youwere offering could not remain unheard, you seemed to pray so earnestly.I felt that I ought to pray myself, and I commenced calling out in myheart, 'God be merciful to me--a sinner.' Then while I prayed, Iseemed to see my Saviour's face right above your bowed head. Oh, howreproachfully He looked at me! and yet His expression was full of love,too. It was just such a look, I think, that He fixed on Peter when hedenied Him. Then it seemed that I fell down at His feet and weptbitterly, and as I did so the look of reproach passed away, and onlyan expression of love and forgiveness remained. A sudden peace cameinto my soul which I cannot describe; a rush of tears into my eyes;and when I had wiped them away, I saw only your bowed formpraying--praying on for me. And, Ethel dear, my patient, much-enduringwife, I believe God has answered your prayer. I feel that I am a newman."
"God be praised!" exclaimed his wife, with streaming eyes. Then in asudden rush of tenderness she clasped her husband to her heart, herstrong love seeming like the echo of God's love, the earnest here onearth of that above, where all barriers shall pass away.
The sound of their voices toward the last had awakened their son, andhe now stood beside them with wet eyes and heaving breast.
When the wife rose from her embrace, she saw that her husband was veryweak. For a few moments he gasped for breath. Then, getting a littleeasier, he looked up and saw his son, and exclaimed: "Thank God--myboy--thank God--you are here. Ah, my son--I have learned much--sincewe spoke together last. I have seen that--I have much more--need offorgiveness than--to forgive. Thanks to your--mother's prayers--Ibelieve--I feel sure that I am forgiven."
"More thanks to God's love, Dennis," said his wife. "God wanted toforgive you all the time more than we wanted Him to. Thank God, whois rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. He islongsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish."
"Those are sweet words, wife, and I have found them true."
For a little time they sat with clasped hands, their hearts too fullto speak. Faint streaks along the eastern horizon showed that the dawnwas near. The sick man gave a slight shiver, and passed his handsacross his eyes as if to clear away a mist, and then said, feebly:"Dennis, my son--won't you turn up the lamp a little--and fix the fire?The room seems getting so cold--and dark."
The wife looked at her son in quick alarm. The stove was red-hot, andthe lamp, no longer shaded, stood openly on the table.
The son saw that he must take the lead in the last sad scene, for inthe presence of death the heart of the loving, constant woman clungto her husband as never before. Throwing herself on her knees by hisside, she cried with loud, choking sobs, "Oh, Dennis--husband--Ifear--you are leaving me!"
"Is this death?" he asked of his son, in an awed tone.
"I fear it is, father," said the young man, gently.
After a moment his father said, composedly: "I think you are right.I feel that--my end is near, Ethel--darling--for my sake--try to becalm--during the last few moments I am with you."
A few stifled sobs and the room was still.
"I have but little time to--put my house--in order--and if I hadmonths--I could not do it. Dennis, I leave you--little else--thandebts--embarrassments, and the record of many failures. You mustdo--the best you can. I am not able to advise you. Only never love thisworld as I have. It will disappoint you. And, _whatever happens,never lose faith in the goodness of God_. This has been my bane.It has poisoned my life here, and, had it not been for thi
s dear wife,it would have been my destruction here-after. For long years--only herpatient love--has stood between me and a miserable end. Next to God--Icommit her and your little sisters to your care. Be true to this mostsacred trust.
"Ethel, dear, my more than wife--my good angel--what shall I say toyou?" and the man's lip quivered, and for a time he could say no more.But the unwonted composure had come into his wife's manner. The eyeswere gaining that intent look which was their expression when picturingto herself scenes in the life beyond.
"Oh, Dennis, we seem just on the confines of a glorious world--it isso near, so real--it seems as if but a step would take us all into it.Oh! if you could but see its beauties, its glories--if you could hearthe music, you would not fear to enter. It seems as if we were theretogether now."
"Oh, Ethel, come back, come back," cried her husband, piteously. "Iam not worthy of all that. I have no heart for glory now. I can seeonly my Saviour's face looking--at me--with love and forgiveness.That is heaven enough for me--and when you come--my cup will be morethan full. And now--farewell--for a little while."
For a few moments they clung to each other. Then the little girls werebrought, and their father pressed his cold lips to their warm, freshyoung faces. They wondered at a scene they could not understand, andwere tearful because of the tears of others.
He was now going very fast. Suddenly he turned to his son and said,"Dennis, repeat to me that verse, 'This is a faithful saying--'"
With a voice hoarse and broken by emotion, his son complied: "This isa faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesuscame into the world to save sinners."
"Of whom I am chief," said his father, emphatically. "And yet"--his facelighting up with a wan smile, like a sudden ray of light fallingon a clouded landscape before the sun sinks below the horizon--"andyet forgiven."
By and by he again whispered, "Forgiven!" Then his eyes closed, andall was still. They thought he was gone. But as they stood over himin awed, breathless silence, his lips again moved. Bending down, theyheard in faint, far-away tones, like an echo from the _other side,"Forgiven!"_
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