Hawaii - James Michener [88]
Prayers by Gideon and his oldest boy followed, then an invitation to the visitor to say a few words. Reverend Thorn spoke long and passionately of the influence a Christian home can have upon a young man, or, as he remembered his sisters and the strong women into which they grew, upon a young female. "It is from homes like this," he said, "that God picks those who are to carry forward His work on earth." And in the fullness of his talk he committed himself to sponsoring Abner Hale, for he knew then that while it must be granted that the young man was unpleasant now, in the future he was going to be a great and solid implement of the Lord.
When prayers were ended, and the children dismissed, the reverend asked Gideon for a sheet of paper on which to report to the Board. "Will it be a long letter?" Gideon asked anxiously.
"A short one," Eliphalet replied. "I have happy news to report."
Gideon, therefore, prudently tore his letter paper in half and handed his visitor one portion. "We waste nothing here," he explained, and as the tall missionary began his letter: "Brethren, I have visited the home of Abner Hale and have found that he comes from a family totally dedicated to God ..." he happened to look at the narrow shelf where books were kept, and he saw with pleasure that they much resembled the books his family had collected--a battered copy of Euclid, Fox's Book of Martyrs, a speller of Noah Webster's, and a well-worn edition of John Bunyan standing beside a family Bible. "I see with some pleasure," Reverend Thorn interrupted, "that this Christian family does not surrender to loose poetry and the novels which are becoming so popular in our land."
"This family is striving toward salvation," Gideon replied bleakly, and the thin-faced missionary finished the letter which would send Abner Hale to Owhyhee.
As Ehphalet Thorn stepped into the cool spring air, Mr. and Mrs. Hale accompanied him to the bright road that shimmered in moonlight. "If it were raining," Gideon said, "or if there were no moon, I'd saddle the horses . . ." Instead, he pointed the way to Marlboro with his powerful right arm. "It's not far," he assured his guest.
Reverend Thorn bade the couple good night and started off toward the dim lights of Marlboro, but after he had gone a short distance he stopped and turned to survey once more the bleak and arid home from which his proteg6 had come. The trees were in line; the fields were well trimmed; the cattle were fat. For the rest of the farm, one could see only penury, a complete lack of anything relating to beauty, and an austerity of purpose that was positively repellent, except that it so obviously called to the passer by: "Here is a home that is dedicated to God." And as if to underline that fact, it was less than two hours after Reverend Thorn's departure that Abner Hale's oldest sister rushed weeping into her mother's room and stood trembling in the moonlight, crying, "Mother! Mother! I was lying awake thinking of the poor Africans about whom Reverend Thorn spoke tonight, and I began to shake, and I heard God's voice speaking directly to me."
"Did you have a sense of overwhelming sin?" her mother asked, slipping into a long coat which she used as a night wrap.
"Yes! I saw for the first time that I was hopelessly and utterly damned and that I had no escape."
"And you felt willing to surrender yourself totally to God?"
"It was as if a great hand were shaking me, violently, bringing me to my senses at last."
"Gideon!" the girl's mother cried in ecstasy. "Esther has been initiated into a sense of sin!"
The news was more pleasing than any other that Gideon Hale could have heard, and he cried, "Has she entered into a state of grace?"
"She has!" Mrs. Hale cried. "Oh, blessed Beulah Land, another sinner has found you!" And the three Hales knelt in the moonlight and gave ardent thanks to their bleak and forbidding Protector for having disclosed to still another member of their family the remorseless weight of sin under which mankind lives, the