In League with Israel: A Tale of the Chattanooga ConferenceJohnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
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In League with Israel: A Tale of the Chattanooga Conference
Johnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
Epworth League (U.S.) -- Fiction
NEARLY every northern-bound mail-train, since Bethany's arrival in
Chattanooga, had carried something home to Jack--a paper, a postal,
souvenirs from the battle-fields, or views of the mountain. Knowing how
eagerly he watched for the postman's visits, she never let a day pass
without a letter. Saturday morning she even missed part of the services
at the tent in order to write to him.
"I have just come back from Grant University," she wrote. "Cousin Frank
was so interested in the Jew who spoke at the sunrise meeting yesterday,
because he said a little Junior League girl had been the means of his
conversion, that he arranged for an interview with him. His name is
Lessing. Cousin Frank asked me to go with him to take the conversation
down in shorthand for the League. I haven't time now to give all the
details, but will tell them to you when I come home."
Bethany had been intensely interested in the man's story. They sat out
on one of the great porches of the university, with the mountains in
sight. They had drawn their chairs aside to a cool, shady corner, where
they would not be interrupted by the stream of people constantly passing
in and out.
"It is for the children you want my story," he said; "so they must know
of my childhood. It was passed in Baltimore. My father was the strictest
of orthodox Jews, and I was very faithfully trained in the observances
of the law. He taught me Hebrew, and required a rigid adherence to all
the customs of the synagogue."
Bethany rapidly transcribed his words, as he told many interesting
incidents of his early home life. He had come to Chattanooga for
business reasons, married, and opened a store in St. Elmo, at the foot
of Mount Lookout. He was very fond of children, and made friends with
all who came into the store. There was one little girl, a fair,
curly-haired child, who used to come oftener than the others. She grew
to love him dearly, and, in her baby fashion, often talked to him of
the Junior League, in which she was deeply interested.
Her distress when she discovered that he did not love Christ was
pitiful. She insisted so on his going to Church, that one morning he
finally consented, just to please her. The sermon worried him all day.
It had been announced that the evening service would be a continuation
of the same subject. He went at night, and was so impressed with the
truth of what he heard, that when the child came for him to go to
prayer-meeting with her the next week, he did not refuse.
Towards the close of the service the minister asked if any one present
wished to pray for friends. The child knelt down beside Mr. Lessing, and
to his great embarrassment began to pray for him. "O Lord, save Brother
Lessing!" was all she said, but she repeated it over and over with such
anxious earnestness, that it went straight to his heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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