The Preacher of Cedar Mountain: A Tale of the Open CountrySeton, Ernest Thompson
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The Preacher of Cedar Mountain: A Tale of the Open Country
Seton, Ernest Thompson
Clergy -- Fiction; Great Plains -- Fiction; Western stories
There is clear vision from the hilltop--the far-sight is in the high
place. The prophets have ever gone up into the high places for their
message. The uplift of Cedar Mountain was on his spirit and on hers. She
spoke softly, gravely, and slowly: "Jim, God surely brought me into your
life for a purpose and, if I am no help, then I have failed. As surely
as He sent us to Chicago to fight that fight and overcome the things
about as well as the things inside, He also sent us here to-day to show
our inmost souls, to get light on ourselves, to learn the way we must
go. I have learned, for my spirit's eyes are clearer now and here than
they ever were in my life before, and some things have come to me so
vividly that I take them as commands from Him who set this rock up here
and brought us in this frame of mind to see it. Jim, you must go back to
college; you must finish your course; you must carry out your vow and
consecrate yourself to spreading the gospel of His love."
Jim stared with glowing eyes as Belle went on: "I've thought it all out,
Jim. I know it is mine to open the way now, as once I closed it."
He clutched her in his arms and shook with a sudden storm of long
pent-up feeling, now bursting all restraint. He had no words; he framed
no speech; he was overwhelmed.
Why put it into words? They understood each other now. He had gone to
the city because that seemed the open way. He had taken up the purely
secular work of the club while his inmost soul cried out: "This is not
what you vowed; this is not the way to which you consecrated all your
life." It was for her sake he had turned aside, and now that she
announced the way of return, they came together as they never had; now
was she truly his in spirit as in law.
It was long before they spoke, and their words now were of other things.
The noon train was sounding at the bend; from the ledge below them
Blazing Star sent up a querulous whinny. Jim was calm again and Belle
was gently smiling, though her eyes still brimmed.
"We shall be late for the noon meal," he said, rising. For a moment they
stood before the Spirit Rock, and he said in words of the old, old Book:
"He carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain."
"It is good for us to be here."
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my
help."
They walked hand in hand and silently down the crooked trail to the
horses. He lifted her to the saddle and kissed her hand only; but their
eyes met in a burning look and their souls met face to face. Then they
turned and rode the downward trail, and on the level plain gave free
rein to the horses so that they went like hounds unleashed and skimmed
the plain and leaped the gulch nor stayed till they reached the Fort and
the friendly door where the soldier grooms were waiting.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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