The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1898-01-28

| ".
the lulls of the tempest storm without
she heard the loud, monotonous sounds
that told the tired administrator slept
we'll after that days deeds. Not he
the one to follow too closely the foot
steps OF his great exemplar. He did
not go out and hang himself. but he
got himself to his soft bed and slept
soundly, at peace with himself and his
work.
But how with the victim OF his
treachery, lying PROSTATE on the
hearth in her room! From the moment
she had felt herself alone she had
given up to the passions that had been
restrained by a powerful effort OF
pride and will "Forsaken of God and
mani" she muttered. And this the re-
ward for a course of strictest honor and
| integrity.
How proudly she had repulsed their
repeated advances to unite with them
in defrauding the creditors Of the es-
tate. and how, when wearied out with
their opportunities, she had told them
that for all the whole race ever had
or might possess she would not betray
trust. and to the menaces of her inter-
ests she had answered that she would
trust in God She had trusted Him,
but had He helped her? Her proud
heart, full of despair and wicked re-
bellion, needed no words to speak It's
answer. Memory played like lightning
with the sunny hours of her past life.
The carefully taught child of a pious
mother, she could not recall the time
when great moral lessons were not as
familiar as the songs of her childhood.
AS she had grown up, caresses and
kindness had been showered upon her.
One short year ago and those who now
insulted and wronged her had fawned
around her with honeyed words OF fiat
terry, and he who had never opened
his lips but in blessing; whose every
accent had been love and kindness,wa
silent in death. How could he lie so
| still and yet so near that, might the
dead hear that days work, 1t were all
known TO him. No! he had left those
he so loved and cherished with only
his unfulllled promises and the tor
turing legacy of his grasping kinsmen.
How they had gathered around her in
the first hours OF her grief, with con-
dolence and sympathy. How kindly
they had offered to relieve her of the
care and burden OF her business, until,
| neglecting the halfuttered warning
from dying lips, she had trusted them
and then for the rest she had no
words-only feelings, and now nothing
was left her but to die, she and her
babes. What had life left for them? Go
with her revenge, despair and rebel
lion; the tempest without was nothing
to the tempest within. Suddenly, with
loud creaking and grooming, the great
doors swung open. The wind rushed
furiously in, blowing out the light and
whirling the ashes around the hearth.
Had the dead listened to her upbraid-
ings and broken the chains of death?
| Timid she had always been, but now
she walked unhesitatingly 20 the door
and out into the darkness. She feared
neither the dead nor the living-only
life. She slowly closed and bolted the
| heavy doors, but as she turned, the
dimpled arms of the baby, rosy, in the
rudy light of the reviving embers,
were tossed up, and, with smile on
his half-opened lips, he sank back to
rest. She gazed long and anxiously
at the beautiful picture, and, as she
looked. she shrank more and more from
herself. The actors and deeds of the
day were forgotten, and she looked
aghast into the stirred depths of her
own heart.
She might have lived and died, and
never known herself, but for the trials
and temptations of that day. The old
family clock now chimed the hour of
four. Oh. that ever to be remembered
night. The little sleeper in the crib,
who had all night long been acting
over the scenes of the day In her
dreams, now murmured, brokenly, land
| forgive us trespasses. as we forgive
those" lead us not into temptation"
She fell on her knees and, with Bit
ter repentance, confessed the deep
wicEedness of her heart and forgave
those who had wronged her, and pass
cd out of her thought, their ways and
| lives. and with sweet promises full Of
hone and trust stealing over her heart
she sank to rest, at peace with God and