In this state of the case John Marvel, wishing to see what could be done
to ameliorate the conditions about him, called a meeting of his
congregation at his church one evening just before Christmas, and when
the time came the little chapel was crowded to suffocation. It was a
sombre and depressing-looking crowd that thronged the aisles of the
little building. Poverty and want were in every face. A hopeless, sullen
misery sat on every brow. The people thought that somehow some good
would come of it, and many who had never been inside the walls before
were on hand. I went in consequence of a talk I had with Marvel, who had
casually mentioned Miss Eleanor Leigh's name in connection with the
first suggestion of the call. And I was rewarded, for seated back in the
crowd, with her face a little more pallid than usual and her eyes filled
with the light of expectancy and kindness, sat Eleanor Leigh. She was
dressed with great simplicity; but her appearance was not the less
attractive, at least to me. She smiled from time to time to some
acquaintance in the sad-looking throng, but I had a pang of jealousy to
see how her gaze followed John Marvel, and one other member of the
assembly, whose presence rather surprised me, Wolffert.
After a brief service John Marvel, in a few touching and singularly apt
words, explained the reason for having called them together,
irrespective of their church relation, and urged that, as the blessed
season which was accepted by Christendom as the time of peace on earth
and good-will to all men was drawing near, they should all try to lay
aside personal feeling and hates and grievances, and try what effect
kindness and good-will would accomplish. He asked that all would try to
help each other as formerly, and trust to the Divine and Merciful Master
to right their wrongs and inspire compassion for their sufferings. He
referred to the terrible development that had just been made among
them--the discovery of Elsa and the other poor girl who had been found
at the Snow house--to the sudden arousing of the law after years of
praying and working, and with a word of compassion for the poor
creatures who had been misled and enslaved, he urged patience and prayer
as the means to secure God's all-powerful help in their distress. His
words and manner were simple and touching, and I do not attempt to give
any idea of them or of their effect. But I somehow felt as though I were
hearing the very teaching of Christ. He would call on one who was their
friend as they knew, the friend of all who needed a friend, to say a few
words to them. He turned to Wolffert. Wolffert walked forward a few
steps and turned, made a brief but powerful statement of the situation,
and counselled patience and forbearance. He knew their sufferings, he
said--he knew their fortitude. He knew their wrongs, but patience and
fortitude would in time bring a realization of it all in the minds of
the public. What was needed was to make known to the world the truth,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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