The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-05-25
II DEACaN'S VOW.
Concluded from Tuesdays issue.


Ills main trouble was with his Bible.
Turn where he would, the verses familiar
from his childhood Knocked him. The WORD
low seemed to stare at him from every
page. 1t was David who said: "Shall |
offer TO the Lord sacrifices of that which
cost me nothing" And David had always
been his favorite character. But they all
paid their vows.
Even Jephthah, whose rash and sw crp-
ing pledge to the Deity had involved the
offering Of his only daughter in q dark and
mysterious doom, had not shrunk from
the terrible exaCtion. Saul, in a moment of
haste, had condemned n possible offender
to death and 10! it proved to he Jonathan
who must meet the bolt of faith, and only
the majestic protest OF the united nation
had availed to save him. The Bible WIS
an armOry which bristlcd with weapons
turned constantly against the Deaconis con-
science. And while he sat at the head Of
his table, silent, constrained, and gloomy,
imposing an unwholsOmc and irritating re-
preston on wife and children, a fiery bat
tie was raging within him. He grew to
dread Agnes sweet, composed face, where
the patience hat could wait indefinitely,
and hold its own to the last, was already
stamped a M~adonna-like dignity. Often,
as he saw Edgar Murray in churcn, he iclt
tnaI nc WIS uIlItstNOllftDlt III opposing HIS
suit. There could be no valid objection to
a pure, steady, well-educated and honora-
BILE young man, who loved his daughter,
and whose love she returned. The obsti-
nate antagonism of his dislike had no
foundation which could be sustained by
arguments.
Days wore on. Months and seasons
waned. The apple trees blossomed, ripened,
and were shorn of their fruit. Successive
harvests were reaped. And then the tide
of good fortune turned, and the deacon had
a new experience. lie lost money. Appa-
rcntly stable investments collapsed. His
eldest son went to a distant state. A horse
of which he was proud was carelessly tied,
and famed in consequence. a favorite
Alderney sickened and died. The barn took
fire and was consumed. None of the losses,
so far, were crushing; but the aggregate
bore heavily on the Deacon end made him
very sad. As he sat in his armchair or
followed the plow, he felt that the warfare
of the Almighty had assumed a tangible
form, and that His arrows We're being
aimed for his destruction.
One sorrowful day there came a greater
loss. The hand of paralysis was laid upon
the meek and evcT-submissiye wife, and
she lay for hours in that death-in-life which
is so horrible and so ~inscrutable. Now was
lIt cup u tAllllllN lull siAli running ONNls
Never Il demonstrative nsr a very loving
husband, the Deacon had felt u true respect
and a complaccnt proprietary affection. for
the woman who had given herself in the
radiant bloom other girlhood. when she
had chosen him from 1nany suitora. Al
ways had she been a faithful wife, diliycnt
frugal, and Obcdicnt to his wishes. When
She passed softly away, amid the sobs of
her children, he shed no tear but Gods
Lightning had, nevertheless, smitten his
soul. When she lay, queenly, in silent
state, in the house where she had been
chief servant rather thar mistress, he sat for
hours in the room, living over long years, and
suffering poignant remorse, which none
knowing the man would have imagined
possible. When he followed thes.hearse to
the family lot where the Camerons had
been buried for generations, he was bowed
under an anguish as deep as it was UNI
~spcakable. Agnes slid her hand into his;
but he scarcely felt the pressure, though
he suffered her IN lead him home like ALT
tie child, after the earth had been packed
upon the coffin.
a few days crcpt on-interminably long
IN the abode of mourning-and one night
the family were gathered for worship. The
Deacon took the Bible, and slowly turned
the leaves until he came to the sixty-sixth
psalm. In 4 voice low and deep with emo
ton he read these words:
For thou, o God, hast proved us. Thou
hast tried us as silver is tried. Thou
broughtest us into the net. Thou laidest
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