The upper room of that poor little cottage was becoming a grand and sacred place. Heaven, that honors the deathless soul above all localities, was near. The G.o.d who was not in the vast and gold-incrusted temple on Mount Moriah sat in humble guise at "Jacob"s well," and said to one of His poor guilty creatures: "I that speak unto thee am He." Cathedral domes and cross-tipped spires indicated the Divine presence on every hand in superst.i.tious Rome, but it would seem that He was near only to a poor monk creeping up Pilate"s staircase. Though the wealth of the world should combine to build a colossal church, filling it with every sacred emblem and symbol, and causing its fretted roof to resound with unceasing choral service, it would not be such a claim upon the great Father"s heart as a weak, pitiful cry to Him from the least of His children. Though Edith knew it not, that Presence without which all temples are vain had come to her as freely, as closely, as truly as when it entered the cottage at Bethany, and Mary "sat at Jesus" feet and heard His word." Even to her, in this night of trouble, in this stony wilderness of care and fear, as to G.o.d"s trembling servant of old, a ladder of light was let down from heaven, and on it her faith would climb up to the peace and rest that are above, and therefore undisturbed by the storms that rage on earth.
But it is G.o.d"s way to make us free through truth. Christ, when on earth, did not deal with men"s souls as with their bodies. The latter He touched into instantaneous cure; to the former He appealed with patient instruction and entreaty, revealing Himself by word and deed, and saying: In view of what I prove myself to be will you trust me?
Will you follow me?
In words which, though spoken so long ago, are still the living utterances of the Spirit to every seeking soul, He was now speaking to Edith, and she listened with the wonder and hope that might have stirred the heart of some sorrowing maiden like herself, when His voice was accompanied by the musical chime of waves breaking on the sh.o.r.es of Galilee, or the rustle of winds through the gray olive leaves.
Edith came to the source of all truth with a mind as fresh and unprejudiced as that of one who saw and heard Jesus for the first time, as, in his mission journeys, he entered some little town of the Holy Land. She had never thought much about Him, and had no strong preconceived opinions. She was almost utterly ignorant of the creeds and symbols of men, and Christ was not to her, as He is to so many, the embodiment of a system and the incarnation of a doctrine--a vague, half-realized truth. When she thought of Him at all, it had been as a great, good man, the most famous religious teacher in the past, whose life had n.o.bly "adorned a tale and pointed a moral." But this would not answer anymore. "What could a man, dead and buried centuries ago, do for me now?" she asked, bitterly.
"I want one who can with right speak these words--
""Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.""
And as, with finger still clinging to this pa.s.sage, she read of miracle and parable, now trembling almost under the "Sermon on the Mount," now tearful under the tender story of the prodigal, the feeling came in upon her soul like the rising tide, "This was not mere man."
Then, with an awe she had never felt before, she followed him to Gethsemane, to the High Priest"s palace, to Pilate"s judgment-hall, and thence to Golgotha, and it seemed to her one long "Via Dolorosa."
With white lips she murmured, with the centurion, "Truly this man was the Son of G.o.d."
She was reading the wonderful story for the first time in its true connection, and the Spirit of G.o.d was her guide and teacher. When she came to Mary "weeping without at the sepulchre," her own eyes were streaming, and it seemed as if she were weeping there herself.
But when Jesus said, in a tone perhaps never heard before or since in this world, "Mary," it seemed that to herself He was speaking, and her heart responded, "Rabboni--Master."
She started up and paced the little room, thrilling with excitement.
"How blind I have been!" she exclaimed--"how utterly blind! Here I have been struggling alone all these weary weeks, with scarcely hope for this world and none for the next, when I might have had _such_ a friend and helper all the time. Can I be deceived? Can this sweet way of light out of our thick darkness be a delusion?"
She went to where her little Bible lay open at the pa.s.sage, "Come unto me," and bowing her head upon it, pleaded as simply and sincerely as the Syro-Phoenician mother pleaded for her child in the very presence of the human Saviour--
"O Jesus, I am heavily laden. I labor under burdens greater than I can bear. Divine Saviour, help me."
In answer she expected some vague exaltation of soul, of an exquisite sense of peace, as the burden was rolled away.
There was nothing of the kind, but only an impulse to go to Laura. She was deeply disappointed. She seemed to have climbed such a lofty height that she might almost look into heaven and confirm her faith forever, and only a simple earthly duty was revealed to her. Her excited mind, that had been expanding with the divinest mysteries, was reacting into quietness, and the impression was so strong that she must go to Laura, that she thought her sister had been calling her, and she, in her intense preoccupation, had heard her as in a dream.
Still keeping the little Bible in her hand, she went to Laura"s room.
Through the partially open door she saw, with a sudden chill of fear, that the bed had not been slept in. Pushing the door open, she looked eagerly around with a strange dread growing upon her. Laura was writing at a table with her back toward the entrance. There was a strong odor of laudanum in the room, and a horrible thought blanched Edith"s cheek. Stealing with noiseless tread across the intervening s.p.a.ce, with hand pressed upon her heart to still its wild throbbings, she looked over her sister"s shoulder, and followed the tracings of her pen with dilating eyes.
"Mother, Edith, farewell! When you read these sad words I shall be dead. I fear death--I cannot tell you how I fear it, but I fear more that dreadful gulf which daily grows nearer. I must die. There is no other resource for a poor, weak woman like me. If I were only strong--if I had only been taught something--but I am helpless. Do not be too hard upon poor little Zell. Her eyes were blinded by a false love; she did not see the black gulf as I see it. If G.o.d cares for what such poor forlorn creatures as I do, may He forgive. I have thought till my brain reels. I have tried to pray, but hardly knew what I was praying to. I don"t understand G.o.d--He is far off. The world scorns us. There is none to help. There is no other remedy save the drug at my side, which will soon bring sleep which I hope will be dreamless. Farewell!
"Your poor, trembling, despairing LAURA."
Every sentence was written with a sigh that seemed as if it might be the last that the burdened soul could, give, and every line was blotted with tears. Edith saw that the poor, thin face was pinched and wan with misery, and that the pallor of death had already blanched even her lips, and, with a shudder of horror, her eyes fell on a phial of laudanum at Laura"s left hand, from which she was partially turned away, in the act of writing.
With an ecstatic thrill of joy, she now understood how her prayer had been answered. How could there have been rest--how could there have been peace--if this awful tragedy had been consummated?
With one devout, grateful glance upward, she silently took away the fatal drug, and laid her Bible down in its place.
Laura finished her letter, leaned back, and murmured a long, trembling, "Farewell!" that was like a low, mournful vibration of an Aeolian harp, when the night-breeze breathes upon it. Then she pressed her right hand over her eyes, shuddered, and tremblingly put out her left for that which would end all. But, instead of the phial which she had placed there but a little before, her hand rested upon a book.
Startled, she opened her eyes, and saw not the dreaded poison, but in golden letters that seemed luminous to her dazzled sight:
HOLY BIBLE.
Though all had lasted but a brief moment, Edith"s power of self-control was gone. Dashing the bottle on the floor, where it broke into many fragments, she threw herself on her sister"s neck and sobbed:
"O Laura, Laura! your hand is on a better remedy. It has saved me--it can save you. It has shown me the Friend we need. He sent me to you;"
and she clung to her sister in a rapture of joy, murmuring, with every breath:
"Thanks, thanks, eternal grat.i.tude! I see how my prayer is answered now."
Laura, in her shattered condition, was too bewildered and feeble to do more than cling to Edith, with a blessed sense of being rescued from some great peril. A horrid spell seemed broken, and for some reason, she knew not why, life and hope were still possible. A torrent of tears seemed to relieve her of the dreadful oppression that had so long rested on her, and at last she faltered:
"Who is this strange friend?"
"His name is Jesus--Saviour," said Edith, in a low, reverential tone.
"I don"t quite understand," said Laura, hesitatingly. "I can only cling to you till I know Him."
"He knows you, Laura, and loves you. He has never forgotten us. It was we who forgot Him. He sent me to you, just in time. Now put your hand on this book, and promise me you will never think of such an awful thing again."
"I promise," said Laura, solemnly; "not if I am in my right mind. I don"t understand myself. You seem to have awakened me from a fearful dream. I will do just what you tell me to."
"Oh, Laura, let us both try to do just what our Divine Friend tells us to do."
"Perhaps, through you, I shall learn to know Him. I can only cling to you to-night," said Laura, wearily, "I am so tired," and her eyes drooped as she spoke.
With a sense of security came a strong reaction in her overtaxed nature. Edith helped her to bed as if she were a child, and soon she was sleeping as peacefully as one.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE MYSTERY SOLVED
Edith resumed her watching in her mother"s room. The invalid was still dwelling on the past, and her delirium appeared to Edith a true emblem of her old, unreal life. Indeed, it seemed to her that she had never lived before. A quiet but divine exaltation filled her soul. She did not care to read any more, but just sat still and thought, and her spiritual light grew clearer and clearer.
Her faith was very simple, her knowledge very slight. She was scarcely in advance of a Hebrew maiden who might have been one of the mournful procession pa.s.sing out of the gates of Nain, when a Stranger, unknown before, revealed Himself by turning death into life, sorrow into joy.
The eye of her faith was fastened on the distinct, living, loving personality of our human yet Divine Friend, who no longer seemed afar off, but as near as to that other burdened one who touched the hem of His garment.
"He does not change, the Bible says," she thought. "He cannot change.
Therefore He will help me, just as surely as He did the poor, suffering people among whom He lived."
It was but three o"clock, and yet the eastern sky was pale with dawn.
At length her attention was gained by a faint but oft-repeated sound.
It seemed to come from the direction of the garden, and at once the mystery that so oppressed poor Hannibal occurred to her. She rose, and pa.s.sed back to her own room, which overlooked the garden, and, through the lattice, in the faint morning twilight, saw a tall, dusky figure, that looked much too substantial to be any such shadowy being as the old negro surmised, and the strokes of his hoe were too vigorous and noisy for ghostly gardening.
"It must be Arden Lacey," thought Edith, "but I will put this matter beyond all doubt. I don"t like this night work, either; though for different reasons than those of poor Hannibal. We have suffered enough from scandal already, and henceforth all connected with my life shall be as open as the day. Then, if the world believes evil of me, it will be because it likes it best."