The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-18

of shame. Why do not / pray more?
she asked herself: and thought of the
forsaken, betrayed girl in the cottage
opposite. and of the immediate neces-
sity of interceding for her and her
guiltless babes.
She slipped in between two rows of
rush bottomed deal chairs. and sank
upon her knees before she had re-
f1ected upon what she was doing. She
wanted to pray. And she had no idea
how to begin! AS she knelt with face
hidden. her cheeks were crimson with
modification. She had no words in
which to address to her Father the
petition which lay so close to her
generous young heart
She had sense of stupefaction.
Here was God, ready and waiting
here was she with so much. so much
to ashland she could not even be-
gin. Her thoughts, undisciplined.
few hither and thither independent
of her control. And yet she dimly,
uncertainty realized that there was a
power, an intense power, like a rope
which she might grasp, to draw her.
self near enough to speak to God,
even IL only one sentence. She had
the most curious feeling that all her
life she and God had been strangers;
but that, nevertheless there lay be-
tween them the possibility Of a won
derful, tremendous intimacy. more
sweet and subtle and mysterious than
anything of which she had previously
conceived. The consciousness of this
was so strong that she trembled. as
though a Hand had touched her. In
the ecstasy which was stealing over
her. it seemed as if she heard, though
not with outward ears, the murmur
of ceaseless stream Of intercession,
rising from the silent forms of the
villagers about her. The thought was
piercing. They were there, at Gods
Throne, where she wanted to be-
where, if she could but win there, all
her difficulties would be solved. And
she had never 80 much as tried TO
find out the way!
After while she became aware
ton.
IT want to come-I want to come
bring me where Thou art!''
And on that, memory supplied
words which she had heard from time
to time from her youth up, and to
which it is safe to say that she never
had attached any meaning at all.
Like as the hart desireth the wa
Textbooks. so longeth my soul after
Thee. o God. My soul is athirst for
God-yea, even for the living God.
When shall I come to appear before
the presence of God?"
Why had she never thought of the
tremendous significance of those
words? The man who uttered them
must have felt as she was feeling now.
And he had drawn close, close to the
Presence that he craved yet not
SO close as she, baptized Christian,
might draw, if so she chose. The
least in the Kingdom of Heaven could
be greater than he.
"Oh that I knew where / might
find him!"
She knew. There, upon that altar,
where now the eastern light grew
dim, He was wont to come and stop
and set the seal Of union upon the
craving for Himself and He Himself
had kindled in the heart of man. Ev-
erything which hitherto had been a
convention, form to her, became in
vested with luminous meaning,
much as if she had been gazing at
a colored window in the dark, and
the sudden glow and glory of lamps
behind it had showed her in a flash
that it was no barrier, as it had SEEM
ed, but a perfectly fashioned vehicle
for light
And all this had come upon. her by
just merely stepping out of the gold
en- light of May afternoon into
Mission Chapel.
She was like the man whose plough
turned UP the treasure hid in a. field
-unintentionally, accidentally, in the
good pleasure of God, her plough had
turned UP a shining jewel.
Her heart found words at last. and
spoke to God. Much she said
which formerly she had not known
that she felt. The curtain
had dropped between her and out
ward things, For a few wonderful
minutes she was in spirit
Her unframed mind was brought
sharply back from it's ascent by the
sound of a door opening and closing.
Looking up, she saw that Father Con-
roy had entered the church, and was
moving up the central passage. He
went aside when he reached the chan
eel, and, taking a rope which hung
from the roof, began to pull the bell
The strokes of it fell harmoniouslv
upon the air of the still place. There
was a rustling, and two more cottae-
ers appeared, then Miss Morrison
walked in, and sat down the har-
monium
Mr.. Conroy vanished, reappeared
vested, and began to read Evensone.
1T did not occur to Vernon to do