I went back to the big stone house and discovered there was
a great big living-room with a grand piano at one end, and a
stone fireplace large enough for logs. A wide staircase led
up to a gallery where many rooms opened off, rooms enough
for every one we wanted, and a big special one for Father
and Mother Marshall, winters, opening off in a suite, so
that they could be to themselves when they got tired of us
all. Of course, in summers they might want to go home
sometimes and take us all with them; or maybe run down to
the shore with us in an off year now and then. Break the
news to them gently, darling, for I've set my heart on that
house just as I saw it, and I hope they won't object.
There were other rooms, but they were vague, because I saw
that you must have the key to them all yet, and I must wait
till you come, to look into them.
Then I heard sweet sounds from the church, and, turning, I
went in. Some one was playing the organ, high up in the
dusky shadows of the gallery, and I knew it was you, Bonnie
Rose, my darling! So I knelt in a pew and listened, with the
Presence standing there between us. And as I knelt another
vision came to me, a vision of the past! I remembered the
days when I did not know God; when I sneered and argued and
did all I could in my young and conceited way against Him. I
remembered, too, the time He came to me in my illness and I
began to believe; and the day I read that verse marked in
Stephen's Bible, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath
the witness in himself." I suddenly realized that that had
been made true to me. I have the witness in my own heart
that Christ is the Son of God, my Saviour! That His Presence
is on earth and manifest to me at many times. No seeming
variance of science, no quibble of the intellect, can ever
disturb this faith on which my soul rests. It is more than a
conviction; it is a perfect satisfaction! I KNOW! I
may not be able to explain all mysteries, but I can never
doubt again, because I know. The more I meet with modern
skepticism, the more I am convinced that that is the only
answer to it all: "He that doeth His will shall know of the
doctrine," and that promise is fulfilled to all who have the
will to believe.
All this came to me quite clearly as I knelt in the church
in the sunset, while you were playing--was it "Rock of
Ages"?--and a ray of the setting sun stole through the old
yellow glass of the window in the organ-loft and lay on your
hair like a crown, my Bonnie darling! My heart overflowed
with gratitude at the great way life has opened up to me.
That I, the least of His servants, should be honored by the
love of this pearl of women!--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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