The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-06

ton said - ,ssok Talbot as they sat side
10y side: Il lay, yes, anything you got
the min ter name. ole Br'er Milliken
can tie one hand behind him an knock
the socks often this yere new fellow. He
amt no SLOUGH, ole Br'er Milliken.
Why. sometimes when l been listenin
bout err hour ter him preachin erbout
thar shall be no night thar. neither any
mo- weepin, an tho Lamb or God wip-
in erway all tears from er feller's eyes
why. I'm givin you straight goods
when / tell you I've most felt like l
wanted ter 60 ter heaven myself"
''That was wonderful" Jack said
YEARLY, with touch Of scorn under
meath. As Teddy made to speak again
the other silenoed him with an impera-
tive look. The opening hymn had been
sung. Brother Green had prayed with
fervor beyond common. Now Brother
Walton stood facing the congregation,
his eyes shining with ineffable fire.
He held neither Bible nor hymnbook.
Without preface he began to repeat the
Twenty-third Psalm, and Jack heard
nothing more with any sense of COM
prehension. 1t all came back to him
the old happy days, Rob in her little
chair at his feet repeating after him the
inspired words He shot glance at her
across the dim lit breadth of the house,
then dropped his head upon the back of
the bench in front of him, unable Ion
ger to endure other gaze.
"My, you're hit early, but then l
sorter reckon you been under somethin
like conviction ever since yistiddy."
Teddy said in torturing whisper Jack
did not raise his head, but closed his
hand over that of his tormentor in a
silence even Teddy, the irrepressible.
though he was aching to add, "Be John
Drowned eff ever L thought of ole Top
knot as err holy missionary, but eft Jack
Talbot gifts any religion this whet jest
know it oughter be set ter the credit of
the sto'"
Brother Walton took his listeners by
storm. Inside five minutes the whole
house hung upon his lips. Long before
he made an end there were bowed heads,
shaken forms, all about. He spoke as
rarely man spake, not Of law, but OF
love. of God who so loved the world
he gave his only Son to suffer in ito
stead and save it from its transgres-
sions. The minister's voice, at first low
and clear and family tremulous, swell
ed to the call of trumpet the thrill
of an organ peal His face was transfg-
ured. The soul shone through, calling
unto other souls through the veil of the
flesh.
There was no passion, no ranting
Save that his cheek famed his eyes
grew twin blue fires, nothing in the
outer man spoke the force within. His
hearers. were spell wrought. Even Jack
sat upright drawn out of his whelming
misery, though still too much domi.
mated by it for conscious comfort. Duly
he noted that Teddy was writhing and
moaning: 80 Godl o Godl o Godi
Mercy Do have mercy on er lost an
dyin sinnerl Lord, dear Lord, / know
am er sinner, but ii amt all my fault.
Nobody couldn't help it eff they clerked
in Topmark's sto'."
Miss Winfield sat, with bowed head,
sobbing audibly. Nina, at her elbow,
was upright and open eyed in the con.
seriousness of salvation already secure.
Mrs. Talbot had lost sense Of every
thing, even her stricken favorite Ce-
rintha Payne's face was seraphic; Rob,
at her side, breathing statue, without
life save in the eyes. They showed dark
er than ever and full of smoldering
light Even the minister felt them burn
upon his face as he stood pleading so
earnestly, 80 tenderly. that those for
whom Christ suffered and died should
not make his suffering of mono effect.
His plea was not tedious Less than
half an hour from his uprising he had
sunk to his knees, saying, half maud.
bly,, Brethren, sisters, let us pray"
AS with one impulse everybody knelt
with him in supplication utterly with
out words. The summer night stiffness
was broken only by the shrilling of tree
toads, the sibilant clamor of katydids,
and, undervoicing them, the stamping
of many hoofs from the tethered beasts
in the grove.
Brother Green got up slowly and be.
koH w
go brothers, will you meet me;
brothers, will you meet me;
o brothers, will you meet me
On Caanan's happy shorea"
His voice was harshly strong except
in the head register. There it became O
clarion, sweet and full of silver. In the
rising throng hundred throats caught
up the old camp meeting tune and
swelled it to food. Some of the voices
made discord, but 1t was overborne,
washed away, in the sweeping tide Of
harmony that rang and rolled as though
1t might reach the stars. Below the re.
verberant swelling of it the ear caught
q tempest Of sobs, of groans, of heart.
broken, penitent ordinations from the
crowd Of kneeling figures about the
altar.
Teddy was among them. He had been
indeed the first to answer the call for
penitents. He had rushed mp the aisle
and flung himself prone in the clean
straw at Brother Milliken feet, shrek.