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Show . . .,,'!. - ... ' ' . '" - rva With all tar totd; and thit much foT loTsiI wiXl ia it God a-pATea m a dar take you and tear the heart out ct you, if need he, Ant only teach you to live, teach you to hold by thia truth. It u a fearful thing, Helen; it is madness to me to know that any instant I may cease to be, and that you may be left aloae ia your terror ana your weakness. Ob, look at me look at me! - There i so more tempting fate;, there is no more shirking the battle there is life, there is life to be lived! - And it calls to you now now! And now you must win, cost just what it may ia blood and tears! You have the choice between be-tween that and ruin, and before God you shall choose the right! Listen to me, Helen it is only prayer that can dq it, it is only by prayer that you can ' .fight this, fearful battle bring before you this truth of the soul, and hold on to it hold on to it though it kill you! For he was through all tha ages; bis ?lory is of the skies; and. we are but or an instant, and we have to die; and this we must know or we are lost! There comes pain and. calls you back to fear and doubt; and you fight oh, it Is a cruel fight; it is like a wild beast at your vitals but. still you hold on you hold on!" . , (To Be Cootinnsd.) ' PART II :.' r ;:'-tf CIUPTER III. -- (Oenttouad,) '- ' ';' ' The zftoon rose ftlm snd red behind the ' moon tains it had mounted high tn the sky, aad the room was bright with it, whea at last the man rose from tba bed snd began swiftly - pacing th room, still mnttaring te himself. He sank dnwn upon hie knees by the window , and 4-ssed up at the silent rneon. -: The sgaln ' ha rose and turned suddenly, and after e hur-. hur-. t ried glance at Helen, want te the door aci pasasst out, closing f silently 'behind him. , and whispered ; to klmaelf, half deliriously, j '.'Ob, greet God. it must- end 1 : It must and I " It was mora than an hour afterward that ..the girl awakened from has troubled sleep : - she lay for an instant half dased, trying to ' 'bring' back. to bar mind what bad' happened: . and than aha put out her hand and discovered ; that, her husband was he long ."by her. She , sat up .with a wild start, and at tba same instant- bar aar- was oaaghf by " sound ou side; of footsteps pacing swifdy hack aad - forth,-hack and forth, upon the plana. The "girl leaped up with a atifled- cry and ran out . oi tbe-geoa and eVown tha steps. The. room - below was still half lighted by the flickering ,1r tr sad "BvaIan'eshaaow ' loomed np "on "'tha oppoetta waJJ as she rushed across the roean- and epeaad Che door. .--Th gray tight of dawn was just spreading . across the lake, but the girl noticed only one thing, he husband's swiftly- moving figure. be rushed to him. and ae ha heard her be .turned and stared -at her an instant aa if dared, and than staggered with a cry . into bar arms. "David. David T she exclaimed. : "what Is tba matter I" v Then aa aha clasped hinr to bar-she found that his body.wss trsm- - - bling conTulslwely.-ani that his hand, as she took it" was. hot like are; she called to him - again in yet greater anxiety: "David, David! What is It! Yon riU till me ii yon treat me - sol" ' T. Be answered her weakly, ' 'Nothing, dear, nothing," and she caught hun to . her sod turned and - half earned him into -the house.- She staggered into a vi; with him, and then sat gazing in - rSJi at his countenance. For the L iorehead waa burning and moist v 2n.dkiis frame was ahaking and broken; he eras completely prostrated -by the -fesjriV agitation - that - hid possessed him. Helen cried to him once more, bet he could only pant, "Wait, wait," and sink back and let his head fall upon vher arm; he lav with hia eyea closed, " fcreathincT swiftly and -shuddering now 'and then. --"It waa Godl" hs panted -with a trodden start, his voice choking: " He has shown me bis face! He' has set me free!" -Then again for a long time he lay with heaving bosom, Helen whispering to him pleadingly, "David, Davidt-'! As he opened his eyes the girl saw a -wonderful look, upon his face, and at . last he began speaking is a low, shak. ing voice and pausing often to catch ' hia breath:-- "Oh; Helen," he said, "it is all gone; -but I won, and my uf e S T prayer has not been fox nothing! I was - newer tto-lost, so beaten; but all the time there was a voice in my soul that cried to me to fight that there "was glory enough is God's home for even me! - And oh. tonight it eamet came! " David sank back, and there was-a long silence before he' went on: "It was wonderful, Helen," he whispered; ''there has eome nothing like it to me in all my life; for I had never drunk auch sorrow before, never known such fearful need. It seems as if all the1 peotup forces of my nature broke loose in one wild, fearful surge, aa if there was a force behind me like a mighty, driving storm, thst swept me on and ' away beyond self and beyond time and out into the life of things. It was like "the aurging of fierce music it was the great ocean of the infinite bursting its way , into my heart. And it bore on nt so that I waa mad with it, so that I knew not where) I was, only that I .waa panting for breath and that I could bear it so more and cried out in paint" " David as" he "spoke lad ""been lifting himself, the memory of his vision taking ta-king hold of him once more; but then he sank again and whispered, "Oh, I hav no 'more, strength, X.caa do no more; but it waa God, and I am free!" He lay trembling and breathing fast again, but sinking pack from his effort and closing his eyea ejchaustedly. Alter a long time he went on" in a faint t vojc: "I suppose -if I had -lived long Ifso that would have been a vision of Joi' heaven; and yet there was not Taw instant of it even when I fell .'Ttcrwji upon the ground -and when I j struck my hands upon the stones been be-en use . thev were numb-, and -burning when I did not know ju6t what it was, the surging passion of my- soul flung looser at last! It waa like the voices of the stars and the mountains, that whisper of that which is -and which conquers, con-quers, of that which conquers without sound or sign; Helen, I thought of that wonderful testament of Pascal's that has haunted me all my lifetime those atrange, wild, gasping words of a soul gone mad with awe and beyond all ut- : reran ee except cry 'Joy, joy; tears of joy!' And I thought of a still . more fearful story; I thought that it . must have been such thunder-music that rang through the soul of the Master Mas-ter and swept him away beyond scorn and pain, so that the men about him seemed like jeering phantoms that he ' might scatter with his hand before the glorv of vision in which it was all one to live or die. Oh, it is that which has brought me my peace! God needs not our help, but only our worship; and beside be-side his glory all our 'guilt is nothing, and there is no' madness like our fear. And oh, if we can only hold to that - and fight for it, conquer all temptation and ail pain--ail fear because we must , die and cease to be" The man had - clinched his hands . - ".gain and was lifting himself with the 'ild look upon his countenance;- he 'seemed to the girl to be delirious, and ahe was shuddering, half with awe and . half with terror. She interrupted him in a sudden burst of alarm: "Yes, yea; . bit, David, not now, not now it is too "much you will kill yourself!" "I can die." he 'panted; "I ean die, i but I cannot ever be mastered again, Bever again be blind! Oh, Helen, all my life I have been lost and beaten " b.'aten by my weakness and my fear; i ff this once, this onee I was free; this 'y,i I knew and"-1 lived; and now I .') 1 die rejoicing! listen to me, Helen; ile I am here there can be no more ; dthrying, no more weakness! Such sin -and doubt as that -ef yesterday must - never conquer my soul -again; I wil not any more be at the mercy of chance. I ". love yon, Helen; God knows that I love k . - - . |