"And so I lose My witnesses!" he imagined his Lord saying with grief.
"They are walking by sight and not by faith, and the seen, tangible
things hold them. Who will stretch out his hands to lay hold upon the
things of eternal life?"
Hubert sank in rebuked silence under the spell of the afternoon's
disclosure. It was reality, if he were a Christian. It must be faced.
But how the seen things wrestled with the heavenly vision! Habit, long
association, and tender love mingled a cup of sacrifice that he must
drink. Could he leave all these for the sake of the joyful message of
his Lord?
Now imagination pictured the leavetaking. How the familiar scenes of
his home and native city remonstrated with his choice! In fancy he
wrung for the last time his father's hand, he bade one last farewell to
the flower-dressed grave of his gentle mother, and--and _Winifred_!
A dry, tearless sob shook him. O sweet sister, loved most of all since
the days when, her jealous-eyed protector, he walked beside her to the
school, shared sturdily but keenly her childish woes and fought all
battles for her! Loved now with a closer, spiritual tie in their
mutual devotion to their blessed Lord! How could he give her up? How
could he leave her undefended now by his watchful love?
The scene of three years ago when he handed the sword of his
self-served and self-defended life to Jesus Christ, and purposed in His
heart to follow Him at any cost, was vividly rehearsed in his memory.
Possessions, home, kindred, all things, were nominated in the bond of
the whole-hearted surrender to his Lord. The time had come to hold to
those honest terms.
Hubert rose from his seat with a pale face, and a death-like sinking at
his heart. "Yes, Lord Jesus," he uttered with dry lips, "I am at Thy
command. Forgive my coward halting. If Thou wilt send me, I will go."
On the other side of the hall, in her pretty room, Winifred had prayed:
"We have seen the glance of Thine eye, O Lord, and know Thy longing.
Open our eyes to see how we may serve Thee, and strengthen our hearts
to bear--nay, to love!--Thy will. If we must give each other up"--a
long pause, broken by storms of weeping, intervened--"then let us
see--oh, _let us see Thy face_!"
When Winifred and Hubert first met in the hall next morning some gleams
of comfort had already stolen into both their hearts. He put his arm
about her as they descended the stairs together, and at the foot they
paused.
"Dear little sister!" he said caressingly.
Her eyes filled at his unusual tenderness; for Hubert's love, however
fervent and well believed-in, was not demonstrative. She looked up in
his face with a long, serious question. He answered it by asking:
"Shall I go?--for Him, Winnie?"
"Yes, Hubert," she said earnestly, "oh, yes!" But the color flickered
in her cheeks and her lips grew white.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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