Eva Gunnersdotter, being the oldest person present, was placed at the head of the long table. In front of her lay an opened letter, with American stamps on the envelope.
"Another letter has come from our dear brother h.e.l.lgum," said Halvor. "This is why I have called the brothers and sisters together."
"I gather that you must think this a very important doc.u.ment, Halvor," said Bullet Gunner, thoughtfully.
"I do," replied Halvor. "Now we shall learn what h.e.l.lgum meant when he wrote in his last letter that a great trial of our faith was before us."
"I don"t think that any of us will be afraid to suffer in the Lord"s cause," Gunner a.s.sured him.
All the h.e.l.lgumists had not yet arrived, and there was a long wait before the last one finally made his appearance. Old Eva Gunnersdotter, with her far-sighted eyes, meanwhile sat gazing at h.e.l.lgum"s letter. She was reminded of the letter with the seven seals, in Revelation, and fancied that the instant any human hand should touch that letter, the Angel of Destruction would come flying down from Heaven.
She raised her eyes and glanced up at the Jerusalem picture. "Yes, yes," she mumbled, "of course I want to go to that city whose gates are of gold and whose walls are of crystal!" And she began reading to herself: ""And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.""
The old woman was so deep in her precious Book of Revelation that she started as if she had been caught napping when Halvor went over to that end of the table where the letter lay.
"We will open our meeting with a hymn," Halvor announced. "Let us all join in singing number two hundred and forty-four." And the h.e.l.lgumists sang in unison, "Jerusalem, my happy home."
Eva Gunnersdotter heaved a sigh of relief because the dreaded moment had been put off for a little. "Alack-a-day! that a doddering old woman like me should be so afraid to die," she thought, half ashamed of her weakness.
At the close of the hymn Halvor took up the letter and began unfolding it. Whereupon the Spirit moved Eva Gunnersdotter to arise and offer up a lengthy prayer for grace to receive in a proper spirit the message contained therein. Halvor, with the letter in his hand, stood quietly waiting till she had finished.
Then he began reading it in a tone he might have used had he been delivering a sermon:
"My dear brothers and sisters, peace be with you.
"Hitherto I had thought that I and you, who have embraced my teaching, were alone in this our faith. But, praise be to G.o.d! here in Chicago we have found brethren who are likeminded, who think and act in accordance with the principles.
"For be it known unto you that here, in Chicago, there lived in the early eighties a man by the name of Edward Gordon. He and his wife were G.o.d-fearing people. They were sorely grieved at seeing so much distress in the world, and prayed G.o.d that grace might be given them to help the sorrowing ones.
"It so happened that the wife of Edward Gordon had to make a long voyage across the sea, where she suffered shipwreck and was cast upon the waters. When she found herself in the most extreme peril, the Voice of G.o.d spoke to her. And the Voice of G.o.d commanded her to teach mankind to live in unity.
"And the woman was saved from the sea and the peril of death, and she returned to her husband and told him about the message from G.o.d. "This is a great command our Lord hath given unto us--that we should live in unity--and we must follow it. So great is this message that in all the world there is but one spot worthy of receiving it. Let us, therefore, gather our friends together and go with them to Jerusalem, that we may proclaim G.o.d"s holy commandment from the Mount of Zion."
"Then Edward Gordon and his wife, together with thirty others who wanted to obey the Lord"s last holy commandment, set out for Jerusalem, where all of them are now living in concord under one roof. They share with one another all their worldly goods, and serve one another, each protecting the other"s welfare.
"And they have taken into their home the children of the poor, and they nurse the sick, they care for the aged, and succour all who appeal to them for aid, without expecting either money or gifts in return.
"But they do not preach in the churches or on street corners, for they say, "It is our works that shall speak for us."
"But the people who heard of their way of living said of them: "They must be fools and fanatics." And those who decried them the loudest were the Christians who had come to Palestine to convert Jews and Mohammedans, by preaching and teaching. And they said: "What sort of persons are these who do not preach? No doubt they have come hither to lead an evil life and to indulge their sinful l.u.s.ts among the heathen."
"And they raised a cry against these good people that travelled across the seas all the way to their own country. But amongst those who had settled in Jerusalem there was a rich widow, with her two half-grown children. She had left a brother in her native land, to whom every one was saying, "How can you allow your sister to live among those dreadful people, who are so loose lived? They are nothing but idlers who live upon her bounty." So the brother began legal proceedings against the sister, in order to compel her to send her children back to America to be reared there.
"And on account of these proceedings, the widow, with her children, returned to Chicago, accompanied by Edward Gordon and his wife. At that time they had been living in Jerusalem fourteen years.
"When they came back from that far country, the newspapers had much to say of them; and some called them lunatics and some said they were impostors."
When Halvor had read thus far, he paused a moment, and presently repeated the substance of what he had read in his own words, so that everybody would understand it. After which, he went on reading:
"But there is in Chicago a home of which you have heard. And the occupants of this home are people who try to serve G.o.d in spirit and in truth, who share all things in common, and watch over each other"s lives.
"We who live in this home read something in a newspaper about these "lunatics" who had come back from Jerusalem, and said among ourselves, "These people are of our faith; they are banded together to work for righteousness, the same as ourselves. We would like to meet these persons who share our ideals."
"And we wrote and asked them to come to see us, and those who had come back from Jerusalem accepted the invitation and called; and we compared our teachings with theirs, and found that our principles of faith were the same. "It is by the grace of G.o.d that we have found each other," we said.
"They told us of the glories of the Holy City, that city which lies resplendent on its white mountain, and we deemed them fortunate in that they had been privileged to tread the paths our Saviour had trod.
"Then one of our own brethren said: "Why shouldn"t we go along with you to Jerusalem?"
"They answered: "You must not accompany us thither, for G.o.d"s Holy City is full of strife and dissension, of want and sickness, of hate and poverty."
"Instantly another of our brethren cried: "Mayhap G.o.d has sent you to us because it is His meaning that we shall go with you to that far country, to help you fight all this?"
"Then one and all of us heard the voice of the Spirit in our hearts say, "Yea, this is My will!"
"Then we asked them whether they would be willing to receive us into their fold, although we were poor and unlettered. And they answered that they would.
"Then we determined to become brethren in the fullest sense. And they accepted our faith, and we theirs--and all the while the Spirit was upon us, and we were filled with a great gladness. And we said: "Now we know that G.o.d loves us, since He sends us to that land where once He sent His own Son. And now we know that our teaching is the right teaching, inasmuch as G.o.d wants it proclaimed from his holy mountain Zion."
"And then a third member of our own household said: "And there are our brothers and sisters at home in Sweden." So we told the brethren from Jerusalem that there were more of us than they saw here; that we also had some brothers and sisters in Sweden. We said: "They are being sorely tried in their fight for righteousness, many of them have fallen away, and the few who have remained steadfast are obliged to live among unbelievers."
"Then the travellers from Jerusalem answered: "Let your brothers and sisters in Sweden follow us to Jerusalem, and share our holy work."
"At first we were pleased at the thought of your following us, and living with us at Jerusalem, in peace and harmony. But afterward we began to feel troubled, and said: "They will never leave their fine farms and old occupations."
"And the Jerusalem travellers answered: "Fields and meadows we cannot offer them, but they will be allowed to wander along the pathways where Jesus" feet have trod."
"But we were still doubtful and said to them, "They will never journey to a strange land where no one understands their speech."
"And the travellers from Jerusalem answered: "They will understand what the stones of Palestine have to tell them about their Saviour."
"We said: "They will never divide their property with strangers and become poor as beggars; nor will they renounce their authority, for they are the leading people of their own parish."
"The travellers from Jerusalem answered: "We have neither power nor worldly possessions to offer them; but we invite them to become partic.i.p.ants in the sufferings of Christ their Redeemer."
"When that was said, we were again filled with gladness, and felt that you would come. And now, my dear brothers and sisters, when you have read this, do not talk it over among yourselves, but be still and listen. And whatever the Spirit bids you do, that do."
Halvor folded the letter, saying, "Now we must do as h.e.l.lgum writes; we must be still, and listen."
There was a long silence in the living-room at the Ingmar Farm.
Old Eva Gunnersdotter was as silent as were the others, waiting for the Voice of G.o.d to speak to her. She interpreted it all in her own way. "Why, of course," she thought, "h.e.l.lgum wants us to go to Jerusalem so that we may escape the great destruction. The Lord would save us from the flood of brimstone, and preserve us from the rain of fire; and those of us who are righteous will hear the Voice of G.o.d warning us to flee the wrath to come."
It never for a moment occurred to the old woman that it could be a sacrifice for any one to leave his home and his native land, when it came to a question of this sort. It never entered her mind that any one could doubt the wisdom of leaving his native woodlands, his smiling river, and his fertile fields. Some of the h.e.l.lgumists thought with fear and trepidation of their having to change their manner of living, of renouncing fatherland, parents, friends, and relatives; but not she. To her it simply meant that G.o.d wanted to spare them as He had once spared Noah and Lot. Were they not being called to a life of supernal glory in G.o.d"s Holy City? It was to her as if h.e.l.lgum had written that they would be bodily taken up into heaven, like the prophet Elijah.
They were all sitting with closed eyes, deep in meditation. Some were suffering such intense mental agony that cold sweat broke out on their foreheads. "Ah, this is indeed the trial which h.e.l.lgum foretold!" they sighed.
The sun was at the horizon, and shot its piercing rays into the room. The crimson glow from the setting sun cast a blood-red glare upon the many blanched faces. Finally Martha Ingmarsson, the wife of Ljung Bjorn Olofsson, slipped down from her chair on to her knees. Then, one after another, they all went down on their knees.
All at once several of them drew a deep breath, and a smile lighted up their faces.