For
an instant the old man looked on all the upturned faces,
listening, with wet eyes, to hear what he could say to interpret
that which was in their hearts, dumb and unshaped, of God's
doings, as shown in her life. He looked, and, as he gazed, a mist
came before him, and he could not see his sermon, nor his
hearers, but only Ruth, as she had been--stricken low, and
crouching from sight in the upland field by Llan-dhu--like a
woeful, hunted creature. And now her life was over! her struggle
ended! Sermon and all was forgotten. He sat down, and hid his
face in his hands for a minute or so. Then he arose, pale and
serene. He put the sermon away, and opened the Bible, and read
the seventh chapter of Revelations, beginning at the ninth verse.
Before it was finished, most of his hearers were in tears. It
came home to them as more appropriate than any sermon could have
been. Even Sally, though full of anxiety as to what her
fellow-Churchman would think of such proceedings, let the sobs
come freely as she heard the words--
"And he said to me, These are they which came out of great
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.
"Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day
and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall
dwell among them.
"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither
shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
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