The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-08-18
CHAPTER XVIII.

THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER.
The eloquent voice on which the souls
of the listening audience had been borne
alOft as on the swelling waves of the
sea at length came to pause. There
was momentary silence, profound as
what should follow the utterance of
Oracles. Then ensued a murmur and
half hushed tumult, as if the auditors,
released from the high spell that had
transported them into the region of an
others mind, were returning into them
selves with all their awe and wonder
still heavy on them. In a moment more
the crowd began to gush forth from the
doors of the church Now that there
was an end they needed other breath,
more fit to support the gross and earthly
life into which they relapsed than that
atmosphere which the preacher had con-
verified into words of flame and had bur-
dened with the rich fragrance of his
thought.
In the open air their rapture broke
into speech. The street and the market
place absolutely babbled from side to
side with appIauses of the minister. His
hearers could not rest until they had told
one another Of what each knew better
than he could tell or hear. According
to their united testimony, never had man
spoken in so wise, so high and so holy
spirit as he that spake this day, nor had
inspiration ever breathed through NOR
tai lips more evidently than it did
through his. Its influence could be seen,
as it were, descending upon him and
possessing him and continually lifting
him out of the written discourse that lay
before him, and filling him with ideas
that must have been as marvellous to
himself as to his audience. His subject.
it appeared, had been the relation be-
tween the Deity and the communities of
mankind, with special reference to the
New England which they were here
planting in the wilderness. And as he
drew toward the close a spirit as of
prophecy had come upon him, constrain-
ing him to its purpose as nightly as the
old prophets of Israel were constrained;
only with this difference, that whereas
the Jewish seers had denounced judg
ments and ruin on their country, it was
his mission to foretell a high and glori-
Gus destiny for the newly gathered peo-
pie of the Lord.
But throughout it all and through the
whole discourse there had been a certain
deep, sad undertone of pathos, which
could not be interpreted otherwise than
as the natural regret of one soon to pass
away. Yes, their minister whom they
so loved-and who so loved them all
that he could not depart heavenward
without a sigh-had the foreboding of
untimely death upon him and would
soon leave them in their tearsl This
idea of his transitory stay on earth gave
the last emphasis to the effect which the
preacher had produced; it was as if an
angel in his passage to the skies had
shaken his bright wings over the people
for an instant-at once a shadow and
splendor-and had shed down a shower
of golden truths upon them.
Thus there had come to the Reverend
Mr.. Dimmesdale-as to most men In
their various spheres, though seldom
recognized until they see it far behind
them-an epoch of life more brilliant
and full of triumph than any previous
one or than any which could hereafter
be. He stood at this moment on the
very proudest eminence of superiority
to which the gifts of intellect, rich lore,
prevailing eloquence and reputation of
whitest sanctity could exalt clergyman
in New England's earliest days, when
the professional character was of itself
a lofty pedestal. Such was the position
which the minister occupied as he bowed