Was it her trembling fingers alone that turned the pages? No; He who
inspired the guide she consulted guided her, for soon her eyes fell
upon the sentence--
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest."
The words came with such vivid power and meaning that she was
startled, and looked around as if some one had spoken to her. They so
perfectly met her need that it seemed they must be addressed directly
to her.
"Who was it that said these words, and what right had he to say them?"
she queried eagerly, and keeping her finger on the passage as if it
might be a clew out of some fatal labyrinth, she turned the leaves
backward and read more of Him with the breathless interest that some
poor burdened soul might have felt eighteen centuries ago in listening
to a rumor of the great Prophet who had suddenly appeared with signs
and wonders in Palestine. Then she turned and read again and again the
sweet words that first arrested her attention. They seemed more
luminous and hope-inspiring every moment, as their significance dawned
upon her like the coming of day after night.
Her clear, positive mind could never take a vague, dubious impression
of anything, and with a long-drawn breath she said, with the emphasis
of perfect conviction:
"If He were a mere man, as I have been taught to believe, He had no
right to say these words. It would be a bitter, wicked mockery for man
or angel to speak them. Oh, can it be that it was God Himself in human
guise? I could trust such a God."
With glowing cheeks and parted lips, she resumed her reading, and in
her eyes was the growing light of a great hope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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