Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-05-22
LONG, LONG AGO.
TRUE sToRY-BY ELIZABETH STUART
PHELPS.

ry Azrael Craven the whole church mill
tant rejoiced.
1t was so long ago that young people
who thought of marriage considered
first what the church militant would
think.
1t was so long ago, that young man
preparing for the Gospel ministry was
an object of peculiar veneration, and
a subject of exceptionally persistent
prayer.
1t was so long ago that such young
man was held to have sacrificed this
world and the glory thereof upon the al
tar of his consecrated youth, to
have wrestled for Heavens blessing, as
Jacob wrestled of old till daybreak, with
hidden, smiling, favoring Lord.
1t was so long ago that such a
young man expected, sought and
found of much self-conquest and
self-denial = of poverty, of anxiety,
of patience, of prayer, of honor, of
peace.
1t was so long ago that such young
man excited the supernatural respect of
women, and induced in them devotion
resembling that in which a Claude, a
Bossuet, Savonarola lived and moved
and had their being, and were not, for
God took them.
1t was so long ago. that the imagina-
tion of a young woman faltered before
the conception of a loftier lot than that
of providing for the temporal and lower
necessities of so elevated and dedicated
a being.
1t was SO long ago, that when AZrael
Craven asked Rachel Fross if she would
i0iu him in the service to which he had
given his life; if she would become his
comforter and assistant in the holy
work if she thought it would insure her
happiness TO unite with him in the
bonds of matripony, which was of God
and blessed by God, 10 this great end
it was so long that Rachel felt as if the
Archangel Michael had stepped from
Heaven to earth, because he had need of
her.
In fact, ii was SO long ago, that people
went to church with foot-stOves; and
Azrael Craven was carrying Rachel's
foot-stove home for her, after the Thurs
day evening conference meeting, when
he brought the subject of Michael SO
vividly to her mind.
Il had not thought" said Rachel
trembling, "oh! Mr.. Craven had never
thought of that"
" 1t has weighed upon my mind, said
the Angel Michael, :" for a long while,
Rachel. 1t las seemed to me that the
Lord. for long while, has been leading
my thoughts in this direction, and have
allowed myself to hope that he would
lead yours in the same"
- But oh Mr. Craven, trembled Ra-
chel, once again, Il am not good
enough. | can never he good enough to
be a ministers wife. never can, in
deed"
Rachel Fross was a tall and stately
woman, with pale hair, heavy upon her
forehead, aud grave, great, reticent eyes.
She turned her head as she spoke, and
looked upward at the Angel Michael
(who was rather tall himself) with mo-
ton such as Memnon might have made
in looking eastward for the first flush OF
dawn which should unbind the marble
of its lips.
1t was not so long ago but that the
| Rev. Mr. Craven observed the motion
and the look with keen-felt satisfaction,
albeit with dull sense that they were
both natural and appropriate. He
shifted the foot-stove on his thin,
long arm, and gravely lifting Rachels
hand, pressed it to his lips.
| "There is none that dOeth good, he
answered; "no, not one. We can grow
in grace together, Rachel.
= All! well, said Rachel, softly, 8 /
can try. | will try, if you would like to
| have me, Mr.. Craven
Il have come to feel, said the Rev.
Mr.. Craven, speaking slowly and with
/ some suppressed emotion upon his
| thin, sickIy, abstracted face, that my
work could not be, could never be round
ed and completed without you, Rachel
| Fross."
Now it was so long agothat the atroci-
! ty of this love scene was as simple and
as serious to its actors as one of MendelS-
sohn's ''Iieder ohne Worte;" so long
ago that, in spite of it, AZrael Craven
and Rachael Fross, joining hands across
the foot-stove, set from that moment
their young feet in Eden, and heard the
Lord of Eternal Love walking in their
hearts that day.
In fact, it was so long ago that a mans
relative estimate of himself and the wo-
man whom he loved might be simply
preposterous, aud yet that he might
! love a woman very much: and that a
woman might be so far glorified Tor this
life by the one fact as never to discover
the other till death and immortality
had blurred it to a faint, untroubling
shade.
At all events, it remains, that Rachel
Fross came home from the Thursday
conference ''promised to Azrael Ora
ven: and that the fitness of this event
was apparent at once and forever to the
church and society of Southampton, in
which devout, dead Deacon Fross had
/ been a g pillar" for more than thirty
wears. and by which AZrael Craven was
supported in the Theological Seminary
at Princeton, with faith, hope and
charity, and a quarterly allowance OF
one hundred and five dollars and fifty
cents
A few grave calls, received in the sit
ting-room, with the mother knitting II
the rocking-chai beside the fire; few
grave walks in the broad winter day, VI
and down the broad, drifted, watching
streets; a little grave discussion of the
revival and the freshets; little strange
sweet chat, of common things-a head
ache that he had, of a pudding that sh,
made; a little awed listening to his las
new sermon; a little temper with he1
mother for suggesting that he change hi
text; some reading aloud IN an evening
from Jeremy Taylor or from Sir Walter
Scott; dignified kiss or two left upor
her forehead in the entry, with the doc
quite open; a timid suggestion that sh'
mend his gloves, and half nigh
spent in darning them to a hair-hnei
wondrous nicely; faint, sweet sense O
household fellowship when he stopped
to tea, !" and led in prayer thereafter
and the perplexlng presence of sly
elusive pain at the thought of wha
Southampton would be like tomorrow
when he had gone-preceded Azrae
Gravens return to the seminary to com
plete his senior year.
1t was so long ago that Rachel did no
tell him she should miss him; did no
saw that she should mourn. They talke,
of the neighbors, and the news the semi
weekly papers held; of the "associa
ton which would meet with Azraer
aunt, across the street, next week; o
the prayer that Deacon Judkin made o
Sunday; of the price of board in Prince
tap and of the hest remedies for SDrin