The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-11-16

} on his knees, an went to prayin
like preacher. No one ever hear,
him pray before. Pop Thomas i
prayin'. They are all a-prayin al
shoutin' glory. Hiram says tel
Emmy she'll get well an all NV en-
ill get well.
| The good news proved true an'
Hiram Thomas seemed to his neigh
bors rs one raised from the dead
The family all recovered, and from
then until now he has preached
preached, preached, like one VIII,
had past the portals ofdeath and re
turned with Gods message of me. c,
to perishing world.
| To-day he stands before com
mittee of a Methodist Episcopal
conference in Chicago, to answer the
the charge of heresy but no resul
of that trial can silence him. Preacl
he must, on a higher commission
than any which can begiven or tax
en- away by conference or bishop
and in his faithful wife will ever fine
a large portion Of his strength and
| fortitude.
I For weeks after that turn in the
tide of affairs she lay on her bed Of
poles and straw. watching the sun
beams on the floor which fell through
the roof, or rather through the open
ing where the roof once was, and
communing with the stars. That
typical American woman her host
ess, in the intervals of welding her
AK, broom, cooking utensils needle,
and knitting pins, read to her guest
from her one book, the Bible, and
from her gwn manuscript commen-
tary on it. This impressed her hear
er as little less than miraculous, un-
der the circumstances, and quite
equal to anything she has heard
from the public advocates of wom-
ans rights She had learned them
in the bitter school of her
wrongs, yet asserted them not with
the passionate protest of weakness,
but with the calmness of one who
knows herrights, and knowing, dare
befend them to the death if necessa.
ry.
The husband was home but once
during the visitors stay and then,
with deiicacy one often finds, on
occasion in men usually half brutal,
took up his lodgings in the barn,
and made his guest feel that it was
a pleasure for him to do so-saying
he hated "sleepin' in house. He
was one Of the millions who could
not bear irresponsible power who
are tyrants when they may and de-
cent men when they must.
After the cabin revival and glory
meeting, DR.. Thomas's recovery was
steady, so that he came 10 his wife
before she could go to him. The
new house was built, and he went
to his life-work of calling sinners to
repentance. He and his wife have
had much sorrow, from poverty ard
sickness and death. OF their Elk
children but one remains. All the
others died of piety, like the good
children in Sunday school books,
whose history is only too true to
Nature. An inherited brain devel-
opment overtopping the physical
force is like pyramid On its apex,
and is easily thrown off its balance !;
and when child has been so train
ed that at three years of age he
shrieks in agony because he has
broken Sunday his hold on life is
very frail.
It is under teachings like these
that DR.. Thomas has learned to be
very gentle to sinners. He has as
he says, learned his theology by the
sides of deach beds and open collins,
and it is full of great hnman SYM
pathv.
He and his wife have points of
difference even yet; but that cere-
mony performed in a squire's office
was marriage recorded and ap-
proved in heaven, an ideal union of
two lives. And to-day they look
back upon that wedding dinner OF
salt mackerel and potatoes as the
best they have ever eaten.