CHAPTER XIV.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 211, 16 July 1887, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XIV.

"\\l. U>Sl. OHN'^IS IN LIGHT."' Yes.l Topo may whisper with the (load JJv bendinq'lorwaid. where they are ; F.ul Memory, with a backward tread, Communes with them afar. The jo\s we lose are b'U forecast, A nd 'we shall find them all once more; We look behind us tor the past, Bullo! 'Us all betore! ANONYMOUS. "i wivr home. Oh, how I loathed with all my r -oul (General Slaughter and all his pioud, demoni'iC Kice ! How I longed to exterminate them ! What maledictions I called down upon them. " That mood of mind la-ted all through the seio autumn and the fro/en winter of my unutteiable woe. Where and what is hell, (ieitnule '? Why, it i.^> here beside us, and too often within us We \ield to the evil pa^ions of hate, revenge, or some other toim of and intense iuul lo ! we arc in hell, and hell in us. We sutler the torments of the damned. Never .shiinlc from my strong language, child, ft ih not as .strong as the fact underlying it. Isuflcied moi e from the fiery passion of hato and the undated desire for revenge than from bereavement and .sorrow. And yet T wondeied why all my midnight players, ampliations, longing to sec once again a Ai.:>ion of my Lily, were never answered. I did not know that ' I could nob rind her in my e\ il .sphere, even though I .sought her many da\.-; with tears.' I began to lTgaul myw^ion as a hallucination, a dream, a mere coincidence, a< my mothei had called it. Ah ! we ' will not belie\e, though one bhould rise from the dead,' unle-s, perhaps, another and another could use {visibly) every day to keep alhe our faith. But to return. "All through the sere autumn and tho frozen winter I remained in the pit ; but w ibh the .spring a blessed change came over my spirit a» o\ er the earth. All nature had not a more glorious resurrection than had my own soul. "3t happened in this way. I had always boon an attendant on tho Sabbath services of tho Old Red Sandstone Church, but I had never gone there during tho week. My poor mother, however, was a devotee. She attended all the services 1 of the church — the weekly services hitherto alone ; bub this ' year, through her many troubles, she had sunk into age and infirmity, and I had to go with her to take care of her. " It was Holy Week — the week preceding Easter Sunday. ' ' Thore were services every evening, when tho logons road from tho Scriptures were tho chapters treating of owe Lord's life

during the last few. days preceding His crucifixion, when Hie -few devoted children drew nearer to Him*, went to and fro with Him. on the dusty rmd between Bethany and Jerusalem, in andsouuwi'th Him through the gates of the city,, the doors of the temple, the houses of his friends, sat down Math Him at the \t\pb supper, went forth with Him to the garden .of Gethsomane, followed Him to the tribunal of Pilate, and finally lay down in thcdn&fc at His bleeding feet on, awful Calvary.. " 0h, r let us touch Uiije. story with the deepest reverential lovo-- tikis story so old, but eternally new ; &o. iamiliar, yet so awfuL I had heard, ii from my childhood up, yet now 1 listened as if I had never before liarl it entered deeper than my outward ear ami natural intelligence. " 1 liad been christened, confirmed in the church, and I had even, communed at the Lord's- supper, and had been a Christian in faith and in practice Hiom my youth up, yet never bad I received tLc truth of the Lord's* divine love in my soul' &*> I received it then when we lived over with Him again those last fow awful days- of His earthly life. And what subdued me most was the ma jestic meekness in that Divine love. It bowed down all my human pride, and seilisliEiess, and self-assertion. And then and there I put away all thoughts of wrath and vengeance, to m^keroom for the Lord's lo\e and meekness. "On the next Easter Sunday my soul also had a resurrection from the death of selfishness to the life of divine love. I could c cc my Lily in heaven now by the light of faith. 1 did not need a vision of her presence, then when I was calm and trusting, I found my angel .again." "Found your angel again 1 " bieathed Gertrude, in awe. " Yo.V murmured tho old man, bowing hib he-tul in icvcrencc. "It was one morning early in May. law oke at daw nof day. It was too cai ly to rise, yet I did not want to yo to floep again ; so I lay and watched the brightening of tho eastern horizon aboA c tho mountains beyond the river, where the sun was soon to rise in glory, and 1 thought it like the brightening of Truth and Lo\e, of Light and Joy, over the whole woild at the coming of the Lord. " When my eyes were tired with gazing tluough the uncurtained window, 1 eloped them, and lay in a reverie until a soft light appeared before me, that dilated until it di--clo;-ed within it the lovely form of my anifel Lily, clothed in shining raiment, hei fair brow wreathed with lilies, her blight hair, silver in the .sunshine, and golden in the shade, flowing like a mantle of light mound her, her face ladinnt with still joy. The gloiy of her presence illumined all the scene around her, and showed her standing in a garden of supernal beauty, tilled with llowei*, shrubs and trees, arbois, lakes, fountains, such as were never seen in this sub-world; in companion to which the g Kindest and mo^-b beautiful scenery on this poor earth are but rude charcoal sketches, lough clay models. " While I gaml in a rhapsody that almost suspended animation, the heavenly -vision molted away, and I s-ank into a dreamless sleep. '*I was awakened by the sun's i&-ys <-ti earning in through the open window and shining on my face '• 1 awoke with only a confused memory ofmy\i-ion, but a-, I tried to iecaJJ.it it came back distinctly to my mind, and filled me w ith joy. " As soon as I was d reused I w euit flovni-'-tahv, and met my mother at breakfast. I told her of the a ision that had parsed bofoio mo in the dawn of day. " She begged to a-suie me tlwtt it was a dream and nothing more. " / knew that my --pirilual oyts had been opened into heaven." "But, grandpa, how -\eiy wonderful!" said Gertiude. "My little True, as I said boforo, everything is wonderful, or nothing is !" icplied the mystic, revevontly bowing his head. " Did you e-\ er sco hei again ?'' " Ye, many times from that day to this ; but only when my natural eyes have been closed, and my spiritual eye* opened. Often in the early morning, when I iust awake, I shut my eyes that I may sec her : and I almost always do see hor. Often, also, in the silent night, when I am sleepless from anxiety, I hear her sweet \oice speak to me — only one word — ' Gabriel,' but in a tono of such ineffable tondcine^s, love, hope, that all my cares aie soothed away, and my ti oul iled thoughts rest in ' a great calm,' as did the stormy waves at the divine mandate, 'Peace, be still.' (Sometimes, when my head has ached, 1 have felt the soft touch of her hand, light as tho fall of a rose leaf, on my brow, and the pain has dissolved away beneath it. But when I have felt that healing touch, 1 have neither seen her lovel} form nor hcaul her sweet voice." Gertrude gazed at the speaker with troubled cyc.s, as sho thought of the many rumoius she had heard from the neighbours reflecting on the old man's sanit}*, and she began to fear the.^e rumors might have some foundation in tact. Meantime the mystic continued : "My child, she is always near me, I know, even when I neither see, hoar nor feel her presence. She is in heaven, and yet she is with me. That is n mystery, unless we can undo stand it through the text, 'The kingdom of heaven is within you.' Sometimes I think when she passed through the ' golden gates' I got a glimpse of the glory within, that has never ceased to light up my lonely life. Once the future state was with me a matter of weak faith and faint hope ; now it is the intense, substantial reality — the gloriou.-, joyous, immortal reality — of which this life is a distorted bhadow. " Her so-cnllcd death was my birth. I, too, had passed from death to life. 1 no longer cherished even the merest resentment against tho man whose cruel tyranny had cut off her young' earthly life, and broken my own heart. Anger, desire of levengc, every form of selfishness passed away from me then, for ever, as I hope. I h.TAC lived in peace 'and chanty with all mankind. "Even when, the following Christmas, General Slaughter came back to Hill Top Hall, and filled the house with a boisterous party of men from the city, who gambled, drank, and carou&ed around the sacred shrine of my Lily's mortal remains, it did not disturb my peace. " Indeed, I iur\or saw General Slaughter at that time. Ho avoided this ferry, and lode miles out of his way to the low r er ferry whenever lie found it necessary to cross the river. In fact, my little True, I nevor saw his face again until 1 saw it on his deathbed last night. " My life passed on, year attcr year, very monotonously, until the fifteenth anniversary of Lily's departure brought the third great crisis in my own history." Here the ferry-man paused, and fell into a reverie that lasted until his eyes fell upon the expectant face of the young ghl seated at his feet. " You are a patient child, my littlo Truda ; so now to reward you. It was just fifteen years after my Lily went to heaven that my dear old mother passed away, at the ripe old age of eighty years. She went off so peacefully, so happily, that I almost envied her rolcase. " That night some of our kind neighbours came to wafcc beside the body,

which? with <tlio iragvow laCfe ]y$ the parting 1 spirit upon ite.cakm.ajul noble' features, layin this room- as if in a*deep,, delicious sleep. "Contrary to custom,. I chose to pifc among- tho watehev^and- 1 sat. there until a late hour. There mww a storm brewing then ; fHich a .stornvifc.proved.to> be as never had been- seen in theses parts before, and has never bison- forgotten since. Then none of us imagined that il was going to be more than th-5 usual thundeistornn in the mountains, V'Jirch is alw*v#s bad enough, to be sure. Hub I thought ©f my boats, which had been /-forgotten. £wA neglected all day long, on account of nu; mother's, departure, and whioh'would. be* an daaiger of being carried off, should thcro be aay 7 considerable freshet in >the river, su«h as u«urtl!y follows a thunder-sijonn in these mountains. " 1 took my hat and umbrella and opened the front door to- sally out imto the niohb, but I was brought to a, .vfcand fora moment) by the a&pseb of the sky.. " Such a<&kyj neves* saw before or since. It was night/, and' it should liaw been dark, but it was not ; for though there- was neither moon nor .-tar to be seen, thoic was a murky, lurid, sul[ hurous vaporar, as if from the reflection of unseen, iires •. while above the Eagle Roo.iuißidge, on. the- other side of the river, was piled up and heaving up a mountain of the blackest, heaviest, densest cloud th.'it ] ever .had seen. " I gazed for a moment and then hurried down (-0 fho boat-houses to fec-cuie my little licet oefoLG tho tempest should burst. About half-a-dozen little skiffs were drawn up high 'and. dry upon the sands. With haul labouivl got them onoby one into the boat-honse. and had chainod up all except* the last when I heard a shout from the oilier sido ct'thc rivor — "•Bo.vr 4' "At that, moment the storm burst with a flash of lightning, lighting up all the" scene, v. hjjtytwas swallowed the next instant in total d/ivkness ; while a crash of thunder as if a planet had burst in mid-air, shook the a cry mountains to their foundation, and a deluge ot rain fell, as though all tho ' windcnv^ of heaven ' had been opened at once and the world -was to bo drowned in another flood. " When the thunder had ceased to roll and tumble down from the zenith to the horizon like- the fragment of an exploded earth, and nothing louder than the poiu ingrain .could bo lieaid, I .seized the speaking trumpet that hung up in the boat-house, put ii to. ray lip and shouted across the water :_ " ' ISiabo'il could live on the Wilde in such a 'Vight a.s this ! It would be more than oar li\es are worth to attempt to cro&s. Take shelter in the terry-house on your ir-ldo, and wait until tho storm is over — then* l will come for you.' " ' You're right !' answered the voice 'from lihe other side. " B«t the sound was instantly followed by a, second a ivid ila»h ot lightning, in which the whole landscape .suddenly blazed up. a,* with a conflagration, and then sank into, total daiknesN, while another crash of thunder shook the heavens and the earth ; aiuc the ruin fell in torrents. " I lighted my laigest Jantern, and hung it to the window of the boat-house, a-> a ■ friendly beacon to tho waiting traveller on ' the other side. Then I w rapped my cloak a)>out mo, took my little Inn tern in my hand, and returned through the storm to, the hom-e. " I seemed all the door- and windows;, then changed my drenche I clothing, and, went and sat down with the watchers in the peaceful room of death. " What a contrast that sweet calm to the wild tumult without ! My iound le-po<-o. " But all around the house— all tlnougb, the mountains and the forests— up and dow n the rivers— all through that terrible night laged the most tremendous and destructhc storm that was ever seen, heard of, or rend of. All night long the lightning bla/ed and blazed as if ifc would have sot the world on fii c. The thunder rolled and crashed as if it would have ground, this mighty eaith to powder. The- rain, poured a^ if it would again have drowned the whole human race. " I thought with pangs oi anxiety about the waiting travellers on the other side. 1 hoped that they might bo safely sheltered in the little ferry-house under Eagle Roost Ridge. But good wishes wore all that I could give them. I could no moie have attempted to cross tho Wilde in such a night as that, with any chance of success in reaching the other side, than I could have tried to cross u lake of Jiro w ith any hope of doing it. "Tho awful war of the elements continued. " Addod to the howling of the wind, the rolling of the thunder, and the reverberating ochoes of the mountain passe?, were now heard another bound more tilled with c ear and horror thai* those of wind and thunder. " It was the angry roaring of the Hurry and the Whirl, now raided to the volume and foice of cataracts, and tumbling down the mountain-side, carrying: destruction and death in their course. " The quiet watchers by the quieb sleeper in the peaceful room now began to mutter prayeis between their pale lips, for even tho women knew as well as 1 did what that voice of the Whirl ami the Hurry meant. They knew it meant an inundation of the valley. "At length toward iv ":ig the lightning and the thutnl ..oed, but the rain still fell in floods, an the angry roar of the raging waters filled the air. "Fortunately, the homes of all these kindly neighbor women avlio were watching with me were situated higher up on the mountain and entirely out of danger from thewatois. I reminded them of this fact, and assured them their houses, families, and goods would be quite safe from the ilood. " One of them thanked the Lord that this w as so ; but they all shuddered. " I knew then that they wero thinking of danger to this house ; and T hastened to assure them that I thought we, also, were far enough from the river to be secure, especially as there was a rise of about fifty feet from tho water's edge to the house, and as in no previous rise of tho river had the water ever reached us. J " The woman who had spoken before now breathed a prayer that we might continue to dwell in safety ; but, as before, all shuddered. " Meanwhile, the tremendous roar of the falling waters continued. "At last I went to the door and looked out. Nothing whatever could be seen but a universe of blackness. And nothing could be heaid but the tiemendous roar of the waters overpowering all other sounds. "It was ail unutterably horrible -night, thick darkness, and the roar of an approaching inundation— how near us, none could see, how soon to overwhelm us in sudden death, who could toll ? Like Ajax, I prayed ' for light only to see the foeman's face.' "I shut the door and returned to my seat among the watchers. "Tho clock on the mantel-shelf struck three, and I said to myself that the day would soon dawn, and show us the real amount of danger done, and the danger to be dreaded, " I sat and listened to the awful roaring of the waters, and waited for the coming day until a low, half-suppressed shriek from one of the women startled me.

I glanced afc her liorror-Ktwclien face; nd from that to the object atwerkiQh she .was pointing. m , „ .' "A lino of water creeping- asa under the, door. Even while I gazed, "the line crept; steadily on, and bocame a pool. T started up, for I knew then thafc tub jshindatiqn WAS UPON US. (To be Continued.)