Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-09
AND THE REV. HERBERT D. WARD.
TConttnusd From Last StlndauI
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH

SEODeu IOr QerS. IL was now Qulbe uafk.
She could see no more than he. The Biek
girl laid her hand In that Of the blind man.
Both shook. Barueh bowed his face reVer-
emily above the poor little feVerish hand.
He did not touch it with his lips. He did
not dare. After all he was a man. If he
had touched Ariella, he felt as if he should
have gone mad with love and despair.
SIS this Baruch, the old blind man2"
asked at that moment a wonderful voice.
Barueh did not start or release the hand Of
Areilla. He held it like man, and quiet
ly made answer.
"Yea, Lord, I am he.''
"And the maiden, of whom thou didgt
speak with me-do behold her?"
Thou beholjest her indeed
| "knoweth she that l am come?'
Nay, Lord, sne knoWeth naught."
| "Glve space to me that I may stand b.
side her. -.
The voice which spoke was one of un-
questionable authority. Ariella started
under it. She looked mp, frightened and
painting, through the dark.
BE calm, Ariella, said Baruch, quietly.
He Of whom spoke to thee, Is here"
| 'You arranged this, Baruch?-you
| planned to bring me here-and told me
not!' There was a touch of reproaeh in the
| girls tone. She had fallen 50 thoroughly
into Barueh's loving plot that her first
sense of being deluded almost oYerpowered
| any other consciousness.
"What 1 have done, have done, I" said
Baruch firmly. SIT becometh thee not to
distrust me, Ariella. 1t is not IN thy power
| to distrust Him."
] Barueh pointed at the commanding figure
OF their visitor. who, during this delay, had
stood both silent and still. The three made
! singular group-the blind man bent
forward, eager, trembling, his whole body
| Straining as if to see; the sick giZi painting
on the litter, and the solemn figure, mute as
fate, before them.
It was now so dark that Ariella could not
even see the familiar face OF Baruch, bent
| so near and turned so teuderl toward her.
Of the stranger she could perceive abso-
lutely nothing except the outline If grand
form; the manifest the most authoritative,
she thought, that she had ever beheld
The face of the man was wrapped in the
darkness of the summer night. Ariella
struggled for sight of it, but it was a. dim
before her as the will of God.
Rachel had now come out of the house
and finding the three fallen upon an utter
silence, Joined them herself without word
She stood behind the olive tree for a mo-
ment, unseen; then advanced and knalt
beside the litter, very near Arieila. Rachel
quite understood what was going forward,
IOE OdEuCu uaQ cOnuQeO In 0er. ana
Rachel was one OF those who trusted in the
,Nazarene.
He seemed almost as if he were indef-
nitely strengthened by the presence of this
commonplace woman; as if she had added
faith or the material of power to the situa-
tion. He moved nearer to the litter and
broke the oppressive silence; but it was
only to ask simple question:
us this the mother of the msiden?''
Nay, Lord, replied Rachel, "She II
my guest and the friend of my afflicted son.
Baruch said that thou wouldst heal her."
Had it been little less dark they could
have seen that the Nazarene smiled slightly,
as a man does who hears from children the
prattle of a knowledge already his own.
But his smile was as invisible to these
agitated people as the sun that had set be-
hind Mount Olivet. The most powerful
personality in Judea presented himself to
these three souls only in the form of
voice.
But what voice Ariella's nature rang
with it. 1t was as strong as the winds. It
was as sweet as love. 1t ran as deep as the
sea. 1t commanded the heart as heaven
commanded the earth; but it appealed to the
sensibility as tenderly as if ones regard
were a precious thing.
'Ariella!" said the Nazarene. He spoke
as never man spake to the sick or to the
we'll. Ariella felt herself drawn upward,
soul and body, to the utterance OF her name
by those invisible lips. 1t was as if the
very waves of ether, set in motion by his
voice, encompassed her; as the waves Of the
sea encompass sinking person who strug-
giles upon them il so be he may swim for his
life. She felt herself lifted upon the sound;
it buoyed her; she bad singular sensation
as il she began to float upon it.
''Yea. Lord, !" breathed ArielIa. She ND
turned her face to him through the dark.
Poor little wan, pinched faceEhow feebly
it moved. Ariella was in terrible pam.
The excitement and exertion of the day.
eliminating in this agitating interview,
had almost oyerborne her. Despite herself
a low moan came from her lips. At the
sound the blind man fell upon his knees be-
side his mother. Jesus and the sick girl re-
mained, the two undisturbed actors in the
touching scene. Low, sweet, serene, and
commanding, came the accents Of the Naza.
rene. Ariella perceived that he did not in
quire concerning her faith in God his
Father; and in himself the heavenly
Fathers son; in his sympathy with human
misery; and his power to heal the diseases Of
men; and he spoke to her also of his rela-
ton to her own peculiar suffering. He said
these things in words so few that Arielia
knew not how it was be said them; but she
was AWAIT VI bHeS6 tuOuRuIS, anu OF MS Qe-
sire to understand her own state of feeling
toward himself. Above all else, she was
aware Of the searching, scorching necessity
hat she should speak the very truth albeit
hat should sound discourteous or distrust-
ul toward the Stranger, who, overWorl and
had travelled to Bethany at the
md of the hot days toll, to serve an un-
known sick girl, If he might or could. It
'ven occurred to Ariella that he was not
Iure that he could heal her; and that his
,fort was worth something more for this
7ery reason.
Lord, said Ariella, chow can any heal
ne? 1 have been sick so longP'
The Nazarene made no answer. He had
advanced, and now stood close beside the
litter; he stretched his hand out, and mo-
ioned to Ariella through the dark that she
out hers within it.
Mine yearsi" said Ariella, ST, have lain
lpon my bed for nine whole years. 1 suffer
Tery much. 1t is great pain. People do not
znow about pain. It tires them to under
tand it. L try not to trouble people-but
I'm not patient girl. L get worn out some
lines. Lord, am so tired-tired out! tired
,utP' Ariella began to sob quietly.
"Lord, my faith has grown sick-like all
be rest Of me. How can be healed?'
Lord" said the blind man, still upon his
Trees. "my faith in thee is whole; it is sound
nough to give life to the maiden though she
i'd lie IN the tomb"
"Baruchl Baruchi' cried ArieIla. The
lind man was distressed. He thought she
hould have cried: "LordI LordP' But
Tesus only smiled thereat, in the darkness,
% one being able to see the smile.
"Arielia, 7" said Baruch, give to him that