Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and Its Consequences — John Shaqi
Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and Its ConsequencesSheldon, Charles M.
Religion
Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and Its Consequences
Sheldon, Charles M.
Christian fiction
A movement and a moan from the woman called him to her side, and Mr.
Hardy, left alone, thought a moment, then stepped over to the surgeon
and asked him if he could go into the other room and see the dead man.
The surgeon nodded a surprised assent, and Mr. Hardy stepped into the
rear room and closed the door. He drew back the sheet from the face of
the man and looked down upon it. Nothing in all his experience had
ever moved him so deeply. The features of the dead man were fixed, it
seemed to him, in an expression of despair. Mr. Hardy gazed steadily
upon it for half a minute, then replacing the sheet he kneeled down by
the side of the rude bed and prayed God for mercy. "O Lord," he
groaned in his remorse, "lay not the death of this man to my charge!"
Yet, even as he prayed, he could not drive back the thought which
chased across the prayer, "I am this man's murderer. I issued the
order compelling the Sunday work. I refused a week ago to inspect the
retorts, which were declared unsafe, on the ground that it was not my
business. I compelled this man to work under the fear of losing his
place if he refused to work. I compelled him to work on the one day in
which God has commanded all men to rest. I, a Christian by profession,
a member of the church, a man of means--I put this man in deadly peril
upon a Sunday in order that more money might be made and more human
selfishness might be gratified. I did it. And this man once saved my
life. I am his murderer, and no murderer shall inherit the kingdom of
God."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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