The Rev. John Birge stood before the window in his cosy little study, and drummed disconsolately and dismally on the pane. Without there was a genuine carnival among the elements, a mingling of snow and rain, which became ice almost as it fell, and about which a regular northeast wind was bl.u.s.tering. The Rev. John looked, and drummed, and knitted his brows, and finally turned abruptly to little Mrs. John, who sat in the smallest rocking-chair, toasting her feet on the hearth.
"Now, Emma, isn"t it strange that of all the evenings in the week Thursday should be the one so constantly stormy? This is the third one in succession that has been so unpleasant that very few could get out."
This sentence was delivered in a half-impatient, half-desponding tone; and Mrs. John took time to consider before she answered, soothingly:
"Well, you will have the satisfaction of feeling that those who come out this evening love the prayer-meeting enough to brave even such a storm as this, and of remembering that there are many others who would brave it if they dared."
But the minister was not to be beguiled into comfort; he gave an impatient kick to an envelope that lay at his feet, and continued his story.
"I haven"t a _thing_ prepared suitable for such an evening as this. My intention was to have a short, practical, personal talk, addressed almost entirely to the unconverted; and I shall have Deacon Toles and Deacon Fanning, and a few other gray-haired saints, who don"t need a word of it, to listen to me. I had in mind just the persons that I hoped to reach by this evening"s service, and that makes it all the more discouraging to feel almost absolutely certain that not one of them will be out to-night. I certainly do not see why it is that the one evening of the week, which as Christians we try to give to G.o.d, should be so often given up to storm."
Mrs. John could not see her husband"s face this time, it had been turned again to the window pane; but there was that in the tone of his voice which made her change her tactics.
"It _is_ a pity and a shame," she said, in demure gravity, "that Thursday evening of all others should prove stormy. Do you think it can be possible that our Heavenly Father knows that so many of his people have made it an evening of prayer? Or if he does, can"t he possibly send some poor little sinner to meeting, if it be his will to do so, as well as those saints you spoke of?"
The minister did not reply for a little. Presently he turned slowly from the window and met his wife"s gaze; then he laughed, a low, half-amused, half-ashamed laugh. He could afford to do so, for be it known this was a new order of things in the minister"s household. Truth to tell, it was the little wife who became out of sorts with the weather, with the walking, with the people, and had to be reasoned, or coaxed, or petted into calm by the grave, earnest, faithful, patient minister; and his rebellious spirit had been slain to-night by the use of some of his own weapons, hurled at him indeed in a pretty, graceful, feminine way, but he recognized them at once, and could afford to laugh. Afterward when he had buckled his overshoes and b.u.t.toned his overcoat, and prepared to brave the storm in answer to the tolling bell, he came over to the little rocking-chair.
"My dear," he said, "we will kneel down and have a word of prayer, that our Father will have this meeting in his care, and bring good out of seeming ill."
And as they knelt together they had changed places again, and the minister"s wife looked up with a kind of wistful reverence to the calm, earnest face of her husband.
"It storms like the mischief," Mr. Roberts said on this same evening, as he closed the door with a bang, and a shrug of his shoulders. "Very few people will venture out this evening. Tode, if you want an hour or two for a frolic, now is your time to take it. After you have been up with the mail you can go where you like until the train is due."
Here was fun for Tode. This would give him two full hours, and he had at least two dozen schemes for filling up the time; but it chanced that wind and sleet and cold were too much even for him.
"Jolly!" he said. "What a regular old stunner _that_ was," as a gust of wind nearly blew him away; and he clapped both hands to his head to see if his cap had withstood the shock.
"This ain"t just the charmingest kind of an evening that ever I was out.
I"d tramp back to our hotel quicker, only a fellow don"t like to spend his evening just exactly where he does all the others when it"s a holiday. I wonder what"s in here? They"re singing like fun, whatever "tis. I mean to peek in--might _go_ in; no harm done in taking a look.
"Tain"t anyways likely that it blows in there as it does out here. Tode and me will just take a look, we will."
And he pushed open the door and slipped into the nearest seat by the fire just as the singing was concluded, and the Rev. John Birge began to read; and the words he read were about that strange old story of the great company and the lack of food, and the lad with the five barley loaves and two small fishes, and the mult.i.tude that were fed, and the twelve baskets of fragments that remained--story familiar in all its details to every Sabbath-school scholar in the land, but utterly new to Tode, falling on his ear for the first time, bearing all the charm of a fairy tale to him. There was just one thing that struck this ignorant boy as very strange, that a company of men and women, some of them gray-headed, should spend their time in coming together that stormy evening, and reading over and talking about so utterly improbable a tale. He listened eagerly to see what might be the clew to this mystery.
"We are wont to say," began Mr. Birge, "that the age of miracles is past; yet if we knew in just what mysterious, unknown paths G.o.d leads the children of this day to himself, I think some of their experiences would seem to us no less miraculous than is this story which we are considering to-night."
No clew here to the mystery; only a number of words which Tode did not understand, and something about G.o.d, which he could not see had anything to do with the fairy story. I wonder if we Christian people ever fully realize how utterly ignorant the neglected poor are of Bible truth. One more ignorant in the matter than was Tode can hardly be imagined. He knew, to be sure, that there was a day called Sunday, and that stores and shops as a general rule were closed on that day, just why he would have found very difficult to explain. He knew that there were such buildings as churches, and that these were opened on these same Sundays, and that well-dressed people went into them, but they had nothing whatever to do with _him_. Oh no, neither had Sunday nor churches. He knew in a vague general way that there was a Being called G.o.d, who created all things, and that the aforesaid well-dressed people were in some way connected with him; but it chanced, oh, bitter chance, that there had never come to him the slightest intimation that G.o.d in Christ was busy looking up the homeless, the friendless, the forsaken ones of earth, and bidding them find home and friend and joy in him. The meeting continued with but one other interruption. Midway in the services the door opened somewhat noisily, and with many a rustle and flutter Mrs.
Hastings and Miss Dora made their way from out the storm and found shelter in the quiet chapel. This was just as Deacon Fanning asked a question.
"Mr. Birge, don"t you think this little story is to teach us, among other things, that G.o.d can take the very few, weak, almost worthless materials that we bring him, and do great things with them?"
"I think we may learn that precious truth from the story," answered Mr.
Birge. "And I never feel saddened and discouraged with the thought that I have nothing with which to feed the mult.i.tudes, that this story does not bring me comfort. G.o.d doesn"t need even our five barley loaves, but stoops to use them that we may feel ourselves workers together with him."
What queer talk it was! Tode had never heard anything like it in his life.
Then Deacon Toles had something to say.
"Andrew, Simon Peter"s brother, just expresses our feelings, I think, sometimes. "There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?" Andrew was gloomy and troubled even while talking face to face with Jesus. Not disposed to think that the Master could do anything with so little food as that, it"s just the way I feel every now and then. "Lord, here we are, a handful of people, and we have fragments of the bread of life in our hearts: but what are we among so many?""
"Yet the Lord fed the five thousand despite Andrew"s doubts," chimed in the pastor. "May we not hope and pray that he will deal thus graciously with us?"
Tode could make nothing of it all, and was half inclined to slip out and go on his way; but the same dear Savior who had so long ago fed the five thousand had his All-seeing Eye bent on this one poor boy, and had prepared a crumb for him.
There arose from the seat near the door an old gray-haired man. His dress was very plain and poor, his manner was uncultured, his language was ungrammatical. There were those who were disposed to think that so illiterate a man as old Mr. Snyder ought not to take up the valuable time. However old Mr. Snyder prayed, and Tode listened.
"O, dear Jesus," he said, "the same who was on the earth so many years ago, and fed the hungry people, feed us to-night. We are poor, we want to be rich; take us for thy children; help us to come to thee just as the people used to do when thou didst walk this very earth, and ask for what we want. We need a friend just like Jesus for our own--a friend who will love us always, who will take care of us always, who will give us everything we need, and heaven by and by. We know none are too poor or too bad for thee to take and wash in thy blood, and feed with thy love which lasts forever. Give us faith to trust thee always, to work for thee here, and to keep looking ahead to that home in heaven, which thou hast got all ready for us when we die. Amen."
There were those present who did not quite see the connection of this prayer with the topic of the evening. There were those who thought it very commonplace and rather childish in language. But how can we tell what strange, bewildering thoughts it raised in the heart of our poor Tode?
Was there really such a somebody somewhere as that man talked about, who would make people rich, or anyhow give them all they needed; who would take care of them, no matter how poor or how bad; who would even take care of them in that awful time when they had to die, and all this just for the asking? If there were any truth in it why didn"t folks ask, and have it all? But then if there wasn"t, what did these folks all mean?
"They don"t look like fools; now that"s a fact," said Tode, meditatively, and was in great bewilderment.
The meeting closed. Mrs. Hastings rustled up to the minister.
"So sorry to have intruded upon you, Mr. Birge, but the gale was so unusually severe. Dora and I were making our way to the carriage, which was but a very short distance away, and just as we reached your door there came a fearful gust of wind and we were obliged to desist."
While Mr. Birge was explaining that to come to prayer-meeting was not considered an intrusion, Dora turned to Tode. Now Tode had in mind all day a burning desire to tell Dora that he had made all the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, just twenty-six times on twenty-six old envelopes that he had gathered together from various waste-baskets, and could "make every one of "em to a dot." But instead of all this he said:
"Say, do you believe all this queer talk?"
"What do you mean, Tode?"
"Why this about the youngster, and his fishes and bread, and such lots of folks eating "em, and more left when they got done than there was when they begun. Likely story, ain"t it?"
Dora"s eyes were large and grave.
"Why, Tode, it"s in the Bible," she said, reverently.
Tode knew nothing about reverence, and next to nothing about the Bible.
"What of that?" he said, defiantly. "It"s queer stuff all the same; and what did that old man mean about his friend, and taking care of folks, everybody, good or bad, and feeding "em, and all that?"
"It"s about Jesus, Tode. Don"t you know; he died, you see, for us, and if we love him he"ll take care of us, and take us to heaven. Sometimes do you think that you"ll belong to him, Tode? I do once in a while."
"I don"t know anything what you"re talking about," was Tode"s answer, more truthful than grammatical.
"Why, give your heart to him, you know, and love him, and pray, and all that. But, Tode, won"t you run around to Martyn"s and order the carriage for us? John was to wait there until we came, and I guess he"ll think we are never coming."
Mrs. Hastings repeated the direction, and Tode vanished, brushing by in his exit the very man who had prayed at his dying mother"s bedside years before, and who had intended to keep an eye on him. As he slid along the icy pavements the boy ruminated on what he had heard, and especially on that last explanation, "Why, give your heart to him, you know, and love him, and pray, and all that." To whom, and how, and where, and when?
What a perfectly bewildering confusion it all was to Tode.
"I"ll be hanged if I can make head or tail to any of it," he said aloud.
Then he whistled, but after a moment his whistle broke off into a great heavy sigh. Someway there was in Tode"s heart a dull ache, a longing aroused that night, and which nothing but the All-seeing, All-pitying Love could ever soothe.
"There were fourteen people in prayer-meeting," the Rev. John informed his wife. "The two deacons of whom I spoke, and several other good men.
I couldn"t make use of my lecture at all, for there were none present but professing Christians, save and except Mrs. Pliny Hastings, who apologized for _intruding_!"