The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)Strahan, James
Religion
The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)
Strahan, James
Booth-Clibborn, Catherine, 1860-1955
"You may go and have a good marriage afterwards, and be proud of your
charming wife’s sweet looks, but does not the vision of another, a pale
face sometimes flit across your mind? And when you look at your little
cot, do you not see another baby face—another little life you have never
owned, of which you are the author, and which is equally yours before
God? A woman’s heart has been broken, and there will be retribution."
While the Maréchale stood alone, pleading as a woman the cause of woman,
her audiences of educated Frenchmen were sometimes so deeply stirred and
convicted that they would rock and sob under the power of emotion; and
when they rose at the end to sing a hymn that she wrote as a young
girl—a hymn which has been translated into many languages—
Ote tous mes péchés!
Ote tous mes péchés!
Agneau de Dieu, je viens à toi,
Ote tous mes péchés,
the words and music would sweep over the audience like a wave, sending
many away with consciences tortured and faces bathed in tears.
One morning, after such a meeting, there was a ring at the Maréchale’s
door, and a lady was ushered into her presence. Coming forward without
a word, she took the Maréchale’s face between her hands, and warmly
embraced her in the French fashion by kissing both her cheeks. The
Maréchale inquired what was the meaning of this sweet affection.
"Oh!" said the stranger, "you have restored to me my husband. He was
listening to you last night, and when he came home he fell at my feet
and begged me to pardon him, vowing that he would never again be untrue
to me."
That was but one of the many fruits of these addresses.
Sometimes the Maréchale would read to _élite_ audiences a letter which a
man of high social standing wrote to a charming young girl whom he ought
to have made his wife. Having met her at Carnival, he awoke in her
heart an adoring love, deceived her with a promise of marriage, put a
ring on her finger, and after three years abandoned her and her baby
boy. The Maréchale took the letter to an eminent jurist and senator,
who confessed that for cold-blooded cruelty he had never seen anything
to equal it; but he sorrowfully added—such are the laws of Christian
lands—that nothing could be done to right the wrong. The letter ran as
follows—
"LITTLE MARIE,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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