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By Root 2831 0

for bread, and girls in the gutters, sick with sin, and young men bleeding in the frosty fields. Yes, and there were those who cried—they had heard it, in their homes, and on the street corners, and from the very pulpit—that they should wait no longer, despised and rejected and spat on as they were, but should rise to-day and bring down the mighty, establishing the vengeance that God had claimed. But blood cried out for blood, as the blood of Abel cried out from the ground. Not for nothing was it written: ‘He that believeth will not make haste.’ Oh, but sometimes the road was rocky. Did they think sometimes that God Forgot? Oh, fall on your knees and pray for patience; fall on your knees and pray for faith; fall on your knees for overcoming power to receive the crown of life. For God did not forget, no word proceeding from his mouth could fail. Better to wait, like Job, through all the days of our appointed time until our change comes than to rise up, unready, before God speaks. For if we but wait humbly before Him, He will speak glad tidings to our souls; if we but wait our change will come, and that in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye—we will be changed one day from this corruption into incorruptibility forever, caught up with Him beyond the clouds. And these are the tidings we now must bear to all the nations: another son of David has hung from a tree, and he who knows not the meaning of that tumult shall be damned forever in Hell! Brother, sister, you may run, but the day is coming when the King will ask: ‘What are the tidings that you bear? And what will you say on that great day if you know not the death of His Son?

‘Is there a soul here to-night’—tears were on his face and he stood above them with arms outstretched—‘who knows not the meaning of that tumult? Is there a soul here to-night who wants to talk to Jesus? Who wants to wait before the Lord, amen, until He speaks? Until He makes to ring in your soul, amen, the glad tidings of salvation? Oh, brothers and sisters’—and still she did not rise; but only watched him from far away—‘the time is running out. One day He’s coming back to judge the nations, to take His children, hallelujah, to their rest. They tell me, bless God, that two shall be working in the fields, and one shall be taken and the other left. Two shall be lying, amen, in bed, and one shall be taken and the other left. He’s coming, beloved, like a thief in the night, and no man knows the hour of His coming. It’s going to be too late then to cry: “Lord, have mercy.” Now is the time to make yourself ready, now, amen, to-night, before His altar. Won’t somebody come to-night? Won’t somebody say No to Satan and give their life to the Lord?’

But she did not rise, only looked at him and looked about her with a bright, pleased interest, as though she were at a theater and were waiting to see what improbable delights would next be offered to her. He somehow knew that she would never rise and walk that long aisle to the mercy seat. And this filled him for a moment with a holy rage–that she stood, so brazen, in the congregation of the righteous and refused to bow her head.

He said amen, and blessed them, and turned away, and immediately the congregation began to sing. Now, again, he felt drained and sick; he was soaking wet and he smelled the odor of his own body. Deborah, singing and beating her tambourine in the front of the congregation, watched him. He felt suddenly like a helpless child. He wanted to hide himself for ever and never cease from crying.

Esther and her mother left during the singing—they had come, then, only to hear him preach. He could not imagine what they were saying or thinking now. And he thought of to-morrow, when he would have to see her again.

‘Ain’t that the little girl what works at the same place with you?’ Deborah asked him on the way home.

‘Yes,’ he said. Now he did not feel like talking. He wanted to get home and take his wet clothes off and sleep.

‘She mighty pretty,’ said Deborah. ‘I ain’t never seen her in church before.’

He said nothing

‘Was it you invited her