Atlanta Georgian., 1912-06-29

years at Bremerton his first and only par.
ish
His success, modest though it were, had
been too simple He had loved the people,
and they him, and the pang of homesickness
he now experienced was the intensest sor-
row he had known since he had been among
them. Yes, Bremerton had been for him
Che realized now that he had left it, as near
an approach to Arcadia as this life permits,
and the very mountains BY which it was
encircled had seemed effectively to shut out
those monster problems which had set the
modern world outside to seething
He, John Holder had held fast to the
essential efficacy of the word of God as pro-
pounded in past ages by the Fathers And
to it he attributed the f1ourishing condition
in which he had left the Church of the AS
cension at Bremerton
Holder looked at his watch only to be re-
minded poignantly of the chief cause of his
heaviness of spirit, for it represented CON
cretely the affections of those whom he had
left behind; brought before him vividly the
purple haze of the Bremerton valley, and
the garden party, in the ample Whitley
grounds, which was their tribute to him
And he behed. moving from the sunlight to
shadow, the figure of Rachel Ogden She
might have been with him now, speeding by
his side into the larger life!
In his loneliness, he seemed to be gazing
between them. 1t was he who had held
back, a fact that in the retrospect caused
him some amaZement. For, if Wifehood
were to be regarded as a profession, Rachel
Ogden had every qualification And Mrs.
Whitely's skilful suggestions had on occa-
sions almos1 brought him to believe in the
reality of the mrage-neyer quite
This he did know-for he mad long ago
torn from his demon the draperes of dis
guise-that women were his great tempta-
ton. Ordination had not destroyed IT,
and even during those peaceful years at
Bremerton he had been forced to maintain
a watchful guard. He had a power over
women and they over ham that threatened
to lead him constantly into waysde paths
and often ne wondered what those who
listened to him from the pulpit would think
If they guessed that, at times, he struggled
with the suggestion even now Yet with
his hatred of compromises, he had scorned
marriage.
Popularity had followed him from the
small New England college t. the Harvard
Law School He had been sobered there
marked as pleader and at last the day ar,
rived when he was summoned by great
New York lawyer to discuss his future. Sun.
day intervened. Obeying a wayward i'm
pluse he had gone to one of the metropoli-
tan churches to hear a preacher renowned
tor his influence over men There is in
deed, much that Is stirring to the magma
ton in the spectacle of mass of human
beings thronging into great church, pour
ing up the aisles crowdng the galleries
joining with full voices in the hymns What
drew them? He himself was singing words
familiar since childhood and suddenly they
were fraught with a startling meaning,
FH me. rddidncy diume,
Scatter all my unbclief"
Visions of the Crusades rose before him. of
a frair arousing France, of Maid of Or
.eans; Of masses of soiled. war-worn. sin
Worm humanity cropping towards the light.
Even after all these ages, the belief the
hope would not down
Then came the sermon, q will rise and
go to my father"
After the service, far into the afternoon
ne had walked the wet streets needless of his
direction, in an exatation that he had felt
before, but never with such intensity. It
seemed as though he had always wished to
preach, and marVeled that the perception
had not come to him sooner
Still under the spell, he reached his room
and wrote to the lawyer thanking him
but saying that he had reconsidered coming
to New York.