Christian life -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Love stories
"Oh, Monica, what a wonderful day this is to him! It has seemed a year
to me, but think of what he must be seeing and hearing! Come and sit
down. I don't mind you, but I cannot go downstairs and eat food. Could
you?"
Monica was tongue-tied. There was a radiance in Sidney's face which was
like a rainbow shining through rain.
"I came up here stunned," she went on softly, "and then I took my
Bible. Do you know the forty-sixth Psalm, Monnie? 'God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble.' That seemed to steady
me. And when I came to the verse: 'God is in the midst of her; she
shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early,' I took
the words and applied them to myself. You can do that with the Bible.
Words seem to give messages in so many different ways. And as I prayed
about it I got my answer. God has been raising my heart up above the
world altogether to where dad is. What does it matter about me? He is
with mother. I found his 'Daily Light' open on his dressing table. He
always read it, and the first verses he read this morning were these:
"'His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me;
Underneath are the everlasting arms.'
"And the last verse:
"'They shall never perish.'
"He went out straight into the garden after reading those verses, and
was gathered into God's arms to be comforted. He wanted it, poor dad!
It was a difficult homecoming last night. Let me talk, Monnie; it eases
me. I had a miserable hour to-day, thinking of dad's great sadness.
Uncle Ted said he was pacing his room half the night. If only I had
known! If only I had been with him! He was perplexed and troubled
about the future. People think that it is only women who cling to old
associations, but men do—even more. Father did! He could not make up
his mind to leave his books, his pictures, the old bits of furniture
that his father and mother had used. It was torture to him, and I
suppose when he found his guns torn up, rooted out of their place and
thrown in a ditch, that was the finishing stroke. I won't be bitter; I
won't think of the door through which he escaped. It does not matter
about the door, does it? It may be a narrow one, and an unpleasant
one to enter, but it is so quickly passed, and the other side is so
glorious!"
She paused, and again her eyes sought the blue sky outside her window.
Monica was silent. What could she say? She put her hand out and took
Sidney's in it. They sat for some minutes in silence. Then Sidney
turned to her, and the light still shone in her eyes.
"Oh, Monnie, it is at times like this that you learn the value of your
faith."
When, half an hour later, Monica left the house, she repeated the verse
again that was still sounding in her ears, but she was able to add the
conclusion, for Sidney had not disappointed her:
"'The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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