Brief sleep, if any, had John Grayson that Sunday morning. As so often
heretofore he could not sleep for pain or sorrow, now he could not sleep
_for rest_. The sense of the peace that was all around him was too new,
too wonderful. He soon arose from that fair, snow-white English bed,
with its pure linen smelling of lavender, to wander out over the dewy
lawn, where the morning sun touched everything with glory. The birds
sang aloud to welcome the new day--the long, long day--every hour of it
to be filled with their innocent joy. One sweet-voiced blackbird lighted
on a rose-bush close to him, and sang. They seemed to have no fear. In
this happy land fear did not reign. No doubt it was there--often--for
England, after all, was earth and not heaven; but it was a shadow
lurking in dark places, not an eclipse blotting out the sun, a presence
darkening all the joy of life.
But this blessed peace only stamped deeper upon Jack's heart the memory
of that far land of agony and blood. "If I forget thee, O Armenia," he
said aloud, "let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not thee
above my chief joy. My chief joy," he thought again, "lies buried there,
and can never live for me upon this earth. But, by that grave, by that
dead love, or rather by that love that can never die, I am pledged not
to rest in happy England, but to work for sad Armenia, and to wait for
my Sabbath keeping until we keep it all together in the Home above."
He did not know how long it was before his cousin came out to summon him
to their early Sunday breakfast. Fred's voice had lost the joyful ring
it had at their first meeting. He looked like a strong man who had just
heard of a great bereavement. Lucy, waiting to receive him in her fresh
Sunday dress, with her look of peace and purity, felt vaguely that there
was sadness in the air, but her mind was too full of her Sunday-school
class to dwell upon that subject.
"Will you come with us to church?" Fred asked his cousin.
Jack looked surprised at the question. "Certainly," he said. "Why not?"
"Because I have to say that which will give you pain--yet I cannot
forbear. You have given me my sermon for to-day."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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