Clergy -- Canada -- Fiction; Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 -- Fiction
Mr. Melvin dressed quickly and passed out into the darkness of the
night, soon arriving at the home of the dying man. One glance showed
that the sands had almost run out, but upon his feeling the hand-clasp,
the sick man revived for a time and said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which
God has in store for those that love Him." After uttering these words
he seemed to be exhausted, and sank down deeper into his pillow. Mr.
Melvin watched him, and after a time saw his lips move, and placing his
ear close to them, caught the words, "Home at last, home at last."
Then the lips ceased to move, and all could see that the ransomed
spirit of the redeemed man had passed beyond the river.
The people of Carsville and of the world had now an evidence that
character and true worth could not be measured by outward appearance.
During the hours that the body of the sainted Thompson lay in state and
was deposited in God's acre the flags were flying at half-mast, and
every business place was closed. In spite of unattractive exterior the
people of all languages and creeds in the place recognized the fact
that a broad-minded man, full of loving sympathy for all classes and
creeds, was not dead, but had been translated.
Mr. Melvin always looked with a certain measure of suspicion upon
holiness people, believing that there was more hypocrisy than sanity in
all that sort of thing, and called to mind the case of Sambo who
professed it, and when asked by his good old-fashioned class-leader,
who knew his weakness, if he had during the past week stolen any ducks,
said, "No, massa." "Any geese?" "No, massa." "Any turkeys?" "No,
massa." "Bless the Lord, Sambo, you are on your happy way to heaven."
As the leader passed on to admonish the next, Sambo turned to his
neighbor and whispered: "If massa had said chickens he had me; I was at
de roosts of Widder Simpkins last week."
Mr. Thompson had, however, never professed it, but his life gave
evidence that he possessed it, and his pastor thought it wise never to
mention that much misunderstood word "holiness" again.
Shortly after the burial of the secretary-treasurer there came to
Carsville a straight military-looking young man with an indifferent
air, who procured employment at the foundry, and whom the minister
noticed in the congregation, intercepting him at the close of the
service to find out who he was and to welcome him. The person was
Leonard Devoau, who had returned from Manchuria, where he had fought in
the Russian army at Port Arthur and Mukden, escaping from the former to
the latter disguised as a Chinaman, where he took part in the world's
greatest battle. Mr. Devoau said that he was born at Ottawa, the
capital of the Dominion, and always loved adventure, and it was this
love that led him to enlist in the Russian army, and pass through the
frightful scenes at the above places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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