Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1867-08-17
A New England Lover.

ters of Henry Ward Beecher's new
novel is New England love passage
the proposal of 'Biah Cathcart to Ra-
chel Liscomb:
"They were walking silently and
gravely home one Sunday afternoon,
under the tall elms that lined the streets
for half a mile Neither had spoken.
There had been some little parish quar-
rel, and on that afternoon the text was,
"A new commandment [ write unto you,
that ye love one another But after
the sermon was done, the text was the
best part of it. Some one said that
| Parson Marsh's sermons were like the
meeting -house-steeple was the only
thing that folks could see after they got
home.
They walked slowly, without word.
Once or twice 'Biah essayed to speak,
but was still silent. He plucked flow
er from between the pickets of the
fence, and unconsciously pulled it to
pieces, as, with troubled face, he glanc-
ed at Rachel, and then, as if fearing she
would catch his eye, he looked at the
trees, at the clouds, at the grass, at eve-
rything, and saw nothing-nothing but
Rachel The most solemn hour of
human experience is not that of Eeath,
but of Ii e-when the heart is born
again, and from natural heart becomes
a heart of Love! What wonder that it
is silent hour and perplexed?
Is the soul confused? Why not,
when the divine spirit, rolling clear
across the aerial ocean, breaks upon the
hearts shore with all the mystery of
heaven? Is it strange that uncertain
lights dim the eye, if above the head of
him that truly loves, hover clouds of
sanity spirits ? Why should not the
toDgne stammer and refuse its accus-
toned offices, when all the world-skies
trees, plains, hills, atmosphere and the
solid earth-spring forth in new colors,
with strange meanings, and seem to
chant for the soul, the glory of that
mystic Law with which God has bound
to himself his infinite realm-the law
of Love Then, for the first time,
when one so loves that love is sacrifice,
death to self, resurrection and glory, is
man brought into harmony with the
whole universe and like him who be-
held the seventh heaven, hears things
unlawful to be uttered.
The great elm trees sighed as the
ftful breeze swept their tops The soft
shadows fitted back and forth beneath
the walkers feet, fell upon them in
light and dark, ran over the ground,
quivered and shook, until sober Cath
cart thought that his heart was throw
ing its shifting network of hope and
fear along the ground before him
How strangely his voice sounded to
him, as, at length, all his emotions
could only say, 'Rachel-how did you
like the sermon p
Quietly she answered.
Il liked the text
"A new commandment | write unto
you, that you love one another. Ra-
chel, will you help me keep it?'
At first she looked down and lost q
little color; then, raising her face, she
turr ed upon him her large blue eyes,
with look both clear and tender 1t
was as if some painful restraint had
given way, and her eyes blossomed into
beauty.
Not another word was spoken. They
walked home hand in hand He neither
smiled nor exulted. He saw neither
the trees, nor the long rays of sunlight
that were slanting across the fields.
His soul was overshadowed with cloud
as if God were drawing near. He had
never felt SO solemn. This woman's life
had been entrusted to him!
Long years-the whole length of life
the eternal years beyond, seemed in
an indistinct way to rise up in his i'm
aginatlon. All he could say, as he left
her at the door, was:
Rachel, this is forever-foreverH
She again said nothing, but turned
to him with clear and open face, in,
which joy and trust wrought beauty.
1t seemed to him as if light fell upon
him from her eyes. There was look
that descended and covered him as with
an atmosphere and all the way home
he was as one walking in luminous
cloud. He had never felt such person
al dignity as now. He that wins such
love is crowned, and may call himself
king He did not feel the earth under
his feet. As he drew near his lodgings,
the sun went down. The children began
to pour forth, no longer restrained
Abah turned to his evening chores.
No animal that night but had reason to
bless him. The children found him
unusually good and tender. And Aunt
Keziah said to her sister:
'Abiah's been goin' to meetin very
regularly for some weeks, and I
shouldn't wonder, by the way he looks,
if he had got hope. | trust he amt
deceivin' himself
He had hope and he was not de-
ceived for in few months, at the close
of the service one Sunday morning, the
minister read from the pulpit: MAR.
riage is intended between Abiah Cath
cart and Rachel Liscomb, both of this
town, and this is the first publishing of
the bans