Then, suddenly and swiftly as a flash of light, a word came to David.
His heart burned, and his tongue was loosened, and then and there
he preached to the old man and the three women the unsearchable
riches of the cross of Christ. He glorified God because Nanna had
learned Christ at the radiant feet of Christ, in the joy and love of
the redeemed. He took his Bible from his pocket, and repeated all
the blessed words he had marked and learned. Until the midnight
moon climbed cold and bright to the zenith he spoke. And old Magnus
Thorson stood up, leaning on his staff, full of holy wonder, and
the women softly sobbed and prayed at his feet. And when they parted
there was in every heart a confident acceptance of David's closing
words:
"Whoever rests, however feebly, on the eternal mercy shall live
forever."
After this "call" sleep was impossible to David. That insight
which changes faith into knowledge had comforted him concerning his
dead. He lay down on Vala's couch, and he felt sure that Nanna's
smile filled the silence like a spell; for there are still moments
when we have the transcendental faculties of the illuminated who,
as the apostle says, "have tasted of the powers of the world to
come"--still moments when we feel that Jacob's ladder yet stands
between heaven and earth, and that we can see the angels ascending
and descending upon it. He was so still that he could hear the
beating of his own heart, but clear and vivid as light his duty
spread out before him. He had found his vocation, and, oh, how
rapidly men grow under the rays of that invisible sun!
The next morning he went to see the minister. He was seated, writing
his sermon, precisely as David had found him on the occasion of his
last visit. So much had happened to David since that morning that he
found it difficult to believe nothing had happened to the minister.
He looked up at the interruption with the same slight annoyance, but
the moment he saw David his manner changed. He rose up quickly and
went to meet him, and as he clasped his hand looked with curious
intentness into his face.
"You are much changed, David," he said. "What has happened to you?"
"Everything, nearly, minister. The David Borson who left here two
years ago is dead and buried. I have been born again."
"That is a great experience. Sit down and tell me about it."
"Yes, minister, but first I must speak of Nanna Sinclair."
"She is dead, David; that is true."
"She has gone home. She has gone to the God who loved her."
"I--hope so."
"I know it is so. Nanna loved God, and those who love God in life
will find no difficulty in going to him after life is over."
"She had a hard life, and it was all in the dark to her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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