"You know you can."
"I do know you can, I do. When I"ve been as black as black can be I"ve felt Him just as close as in the chapel Sundays."
"The Lord is not here or there, in the house or in the field; He is with His children."
"Hebe that! He be!".
CHAPTER XIII
A TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
The people came to meet the Lord upon the Ripley road, and they were not a few.
The first that found Mr. Treadman were Mrs. Powell and Harvey Gifford. They took a fly from the station, bidding the driver drive straight on. Nor had they gone far before they came on Mr. Treadman sitting on a gate. They cried to him:
"What is the meaning of your telegram?"
"It means that the Lord has come again, in very surety and very truth."
"Are you in earnest?"
"Did they not ask that question of the prophets? Were they in earnest? Then am I."
"But where is He?"
"He has given me the slip."
"Given you the slip? What do you mean?"
Mr. Treadman explained. While he did so, others arrived, men and women of all sorts, ranks, and ages. They were agog with curiosity.
"What like is He to look at? Does the sight of Him blind, as it did Moses?"
"Nothing of the sort. He is just an ordinary man, like you and me."
"An ordinary man! Then how can you tell it is the Lord?"
"He is not to be mistaken. You cannot be in His presence twenty seconds without being sure of it."
"But--I don"t understand! I thought that when He came again it was to be with legions of angels, in pomp and glory, to be the Judge of all the earth."
"The Jews looked for a material display. They thought He was to come in Majesty. And because, to their unseeing eyes, He appeared as one of themselves, in their disappointment they nailed Him upon a tree.
Oh, my friends, don"t let a similar mistake be ours! That is the awful, immeasurable peril which already stares us in the face.
Because, in His infinite wisdom, for reasons which are beyond our ken, and, perhaps, beyond our comprehension, He has again chosen to put on the guise of our common manhood, let us not, on that account, the less rejoice to see Him, nor let us fail to do Him all possible honour. He has come again unto His children; let His children receive Him with shouts and with Hosannas. It is possible, when He perceives how complete is His dominion over your hearts and minds, that He will be pleased to manifest Himself in that splendour of G.o.dhead for which I know some of you have been confidently looking. Only, until that hour comes, let us not fail to do reverence to the G.o.d in man."
"But where is He? You told us to meet Him on the Ripley road. How can we do Him reverence if we do not know where He is?"
The question came in different forms from many throats. The crowd had grown. The people were eager.
A boy threaded his way among them. He addressed himself to Mr.
Treadman.
"Please, sir, there"s someone in the wood with Mr. Bates. When I took Mr. Bates his dinner he called him "Lord.""
Presently the crowd were following the boy. He led them some little distance along the road, and then across a field into a wood. There they came upon the Stranger and the charcoal-burner eating together, seated side by side; and the lame man also ate with them, sitting on the ground. Mr. Treadman cried:
"Lord, we have found You again!"
He looked at the people, asking:
"Who are these?"
They are Your children--Your faithful, loving, eager children, who have come to give You greeting."
"My children? There are many that call themselves My children that I know not of."
Mr. Treadman cried:
"Oh, my friends, this is the Lord! Rejoice and give thanks. Many are the days of the years in which you have watched for Him, and waited, and He has come to you at last."
For the most part the people were still. There were some that pressed forward, but more that hung back. For now that they came near to the Stranger"s presence they began to be afraid. Yet Mrs. Powell went close to Him, asking:
"Are you in very deed the Lord?"
He replied:
"Are you of the children of the Lord?
She drew a little back.
"I do not know Him; I do not know Him! Yet I am afraid."
"Love casteth out fear; but where there is no love, there fear is."
She drew still more away, saying again:
"I am afraid."
Mr. Treadman explained:
"We are here to meet You, Lord, and to entreat You to let us come with You to London."
"Why should you come with Me?"
"Because we are Your children."