The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-01-20

| doubts as TO the Christianity OF the Mur-
rays. Though Harmon Murray was a lib
eral subscriber to every good cause, and a
regular attendant on the services of the
church, he was, in the deacon's preiudieed
| eyes, a heathen man and a publican. II
had been an aggravation of his grief that
the gloom in his house was shared in his
lneighbor's Especially had he chafed and
struggled against the knowledge that one
member Of the family that was so antagO-
would have looked with aversion on any
man who night have desired TO win the
affection Of his child; for he meant to
nistic to his own cared for Agnes with a
love deeper than that of kindred. The Dea-
con, though q strong man, was selfish. He
keep her as his own particular treasure if
he could. But that Edgar Murray should
aspire to her hand, and that, even timidly
"l far OF, Agnes should venture to re-
;.rll him IS her future lord, had awakened
in him a resistance as violent as it was
stubborn. Till now he had been fieTcely
angry when three or four times q day the
Young man had presented himself to in
quire for Agnes or to bring her fruit or
1Owers. He had been indignant at his wife,
because she had accepted Mrs. MurTays
help in caring for the sick one; nor could
he forgive her ignoring his displeasure and
sending to the Muuays for aid in this
emergency.
But now he was in extremity. He stag
gered to a seat beneath the oak the very
seat where Edgar and Agnes had been ac,
eustomed TO rest after their occasional
saunterings together by the creek or along
the embOwered laues, and his gray head
went down upon his hands. His whole
heart was concentrated in a vehement,
worldless prayer, which was fam to beat
against the Almighty's throne. NOfeeling
Of Gods paternity entered his mind at that
intense moment. No remembrance Of
Christ as the great High Priest, who pleads
for the children Of men with brothers
tender comprehension of their wants. No
thought of the Holy Spirit, with its sacred
influences, caInc to him, as, shaken, tenn
pest-tOssed, and almost heart-broken, he
cried to God, the Strong One, who could
hear him, if He would The God Of the
Deacon's imagination was a despOt but 3
despot who could be gracious. An Ortho-
dOx Congregational deacon, believing in
and accepting all the doctrines of his
church as he understood them, he prayed,
as q Saxon might have prayed to Thor, as
q Roman to Jupiter or q HindOO to Vishnu,
that his child might be spared. Sinking
to his knees, in the agony Of his still un-
voiced supplicatiOn, the cry Of his soul
broke forth into speech:
"Lordi give me back my Agnes, my
darling, the one precious thing Of my life !
Let her not die, I beseech thee! Lord ]
listen. Thou hast ten thousand times ten
thousand in thy Heaven. Why dOst thou
want my little eve lamb? Oh, let her live!
Let her live, and viii give thee whatso-
ever thou shalt require. My money, if thou
askest it. to the UttermOst farthing. My
will-if it he counter to thine. I win sur
render it wholly Yea, Lord, let Agnes
live, though she sit at the freside of
another and break bread in the house that
hate. Take not the sunshine out Of the
world, Lord, though it shine not on me.
Hear my prayer, for thy dear Sons sake.n
"Amenp said low voice, and, looking
up, the Deacon saw that his prayer had
had another than q divine listener. Edgar
Murray walking hOmeward on the bound
anytime had heard the flow Of the DeacOn's
tition; and as he stood there, bare-head-
/, the Amen had welled up from his heart
almost before he was aware of it.
"Can a man 90 nowhere to be alone {"
exclaimed the Deacon. Must he be fol-
lowed and spied upon under his own trees
and on his own ground? ?"
That instictiye animOsity was dominant
in a moment, though the prayer had
scarcely died upon his lips.
Il beg your pardon, sir said Edgar,
humbly Il did not mean to intrUde; but
I have lust come from the house, and Hugh
tells me there is a shade, at least, Of hope.
Agnes has fallen asleep. She may be better
when she aWakes"
The shade of hope was not an hallucina-
tiOn. Very slowly, very tremulously, al
most impercephbly, the young girl passed
into the several stages Of cOnvalescenee.
So gradual was her improvement that it
was measured by weeks. From day to day
no change was apparenti but from week to
week a slight progress was visible, and,
after awhile, pale but beautiful, she re-
sumed her place in the household and took
up one by one her old tasks. Like a lily,
like a wild rose, like bit Of mignonette,
she frightened and sWeetened the place
where she dwelt. Hers the mission which
no woman need despise to make people
happy, to charm away their sullen moods,
and to diffuse pleasantness wherever she
appeared.
Only with her father she had lost her
old magic. His smiles grew infrequent and
his temper more capriciOus and uncertain
than ever.
Il don't know what to think of Deacon
Cameron" ," said the pastor, Mr.. Denbigh,
who for thirty years had labOred in the
Hillside church. He was talking conf
dentially with his wife. He is becoming
more cranky and crOtchetty every day. I
did hope that the illness of his child would
have wrought a change; but, if so, it is a
change for the worse. I am informed that
he fOrbids young Murray to enter his door,
and when I asked him to increase his sub
scriptiOn to cur Domestic Board, he treated
me as though I were begging for myself
Adyersity hardens a man when it does not
refine him.
"It may be" said the pastors gentle wife,
"that God is striving with the Deacon.
There is good in him, am sure. 1 think
he is not at peace with God, or with him
self Just now. He knows he is in the wrong
about Agnes, and he is, therefore, not COM
Portable. Perhaps, dear, we have not prayed
for him as we ought"
The plain fact was that the Deacon was
uncomfortable in his mind.
He had offered genuine prayer and pledg-
ed an honest vow, fully meaning to keep
his WCrd, while in his heart had been a
vague idea of Precipitation, as he knelt be-
Meath the oak. When Agnes had first be-
gun to grow stronger, his resolution had
bpen firm. IN fu1f1l his word hut rs she
had crept onward to health, it had lOOsened
it's hold upon him. Could miracle have
been performed, and the maiden have
arisen from her couch, at one triumphant
bound, from death to life, he would have
been awed and overwhelmed and in haste
to make good his @TOrd to the Almighty.
The comparative slOWness of her restOra-
ton had given time to his nature to assert |
ITSELF and he was really more ill-tempered,
,ross-grained and churlish than he had
been before. Even to Agnes he was some |
times harsh; the more so that, under her
soft exterior and winsOme ways, the slender
girl had an underlying sUbsOl Of granite,
not unlike his own character and far irmer
than the fabric of which her gentle mother
was made.
Agnes loved her father, but she loved !
her friend too. If Edgar were prohibited |
from visiting her at her own hearth, she
was not ashamed to meet him openly un-
der the sky; to walk with him to the choir
and to 90 riding with his sister, |
while he held the reins and his swift horses, |
the admiration of the country, iTotted /
smoothly ND hill and down vale and over
.he hard, beautiful door-Hle roads which |