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A Resurrected Romance
RICHARD BRAUNSTEIN
"Ye reckon he’ll know ye?” asked
the fat, bld woman, who was putting a
cunning patch on a much worn white
garment.
‘‘Know me!” cried the thin, old
woman, with something that was al
most a blush on her faded cheeks.
"Well, I don’t know anything that
would keep Jimmie from remembering
me. Any two people that knew one
another like we did, and were engaged
for two long years”—
"Like as not, ye won’t know him,”
said the prosaic, fat, old woman, try
ing another patch under another hole
and considering it with her head on
one side.
Now it was that the thin old woman
smiled. "Jimmie was tall,” said she
musingly, looking out at the window,
“and a mighty handsome young man.
Everybody said so. I didn’t come to
his shoulders. I always liked tall
men. When we went out together,
people said what a fine looking cou
ple we were.”
The old woman at the fire sniffed
again.
"That was thirty year’ ago,” she
said with distinct sarcasm. But the
listener at the window looked up, with
glistening eyes.
‘‘Yes; don’t it seem funny that it
was so long?” she asked. "I have to
most shake myself to make myself be
lieve it’s true. Why I don’t feel any
different. It’s the same old me that
used to think that everything Jimmie
did was right. I reckon he would
hardly have known that I was alive,”
she went on musingly, “if he hadn’t
happened to get hold of that copy of
the Clarion with the notice of my
buying that five-acre piece back of
the spring; and then he wrote to me
—such a respectful, dignified letter,
Miss Bangs—and we nave been corre
sponding ever since. His letters show
that he is still unchanged. If we only
like one another when he comes to
day; if we only do, then we are to
be married at last, after all these
years. I’ve have had an independent
life, but it would feel kind of good,
JEREMIAH TRIED AND ACQUITTED
August 6, 1911.
Time —610 B. C.
Jer. 26-7 to 19.
Place —Jerusalem.
GOLDEN TEXT.—“The Lord is My
Light and My Salvation; Whom Shall
I Fear?”—(Ps. 27-1.)
SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS.
What should I do?
I. —Get the True Light.—The Golden
Text. The sinner is in darkness and
needs to come to the light. Jesus is
the light. (John 1-6 to 9; John 8-12.)
We can not have light without life.
The life is the light. (John 1-4.) Jesus
is the life. (John 14-6.) liie Word
does not say Jesus gives light, but
that “He is the Light.” It is not that
Hie gives salvation, but He is the sal
vation. To get life we must get Jesus
Himself. (1 John 5-11 and 12; Col.
3-4; Ps. 27-1.) When we have Him,
who is our light and our salvation,
we need not fw tbe powers of dark-
PINEY WOODS SKETCHES
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
By B. LACY HOGE, Charleston, S. C.
By MARGARET BEVERLY UPSHAW
after all, to have a big, strong man
to depend on. I don’t care how inde
pendent a woman is, she gets kind
of lonesome once in a while.”
“There’s a knock,” said Miss Bangs,
deliberately folding up her work and
rising.
“Mr. Hamilton,” said the maid of
all work, throwing open the door.
Miss Alethea stood still for a mo
ment, dullness settling down upon her.
Then she sank into a chair.
The man before her was gray. He
wore glasses. There was a stoop in
his shoulders, so that he was not as
tall as he had been. In that dread
ful moment of revulsion, she cried
desolately within herself: “He is old
—oh, he is old!”
‘‘l would never have known you!”
she cried involuntarily in her great
bewilderment. “How you have chang
ed!”
He had been staring at her, but now
he passed his hand across his brow.
“I was about to say the same of
you,” he said. ‘‘The years have not
stood still with you.”
She scarcely heard him. She was
slowly realizing that the man with
whom she had been corresponding of
late months was a stranger to her.
“I believe women change more rap
idly than men,” he was saying, when
she fastened her attention on him
again. “It’s on account of their in
door life, I suppose. I am just about
as strong and active as I ever was.”
Miss Alethea sat still and looked at
the floor.
“The weather is quite cold out, isn’t
it, Mr. —Mr. Hamilton?” she asked,
with a manifest effort.
‘‘Not so cold as it was yesterday,”
he answered, with an effort on his
own part.
“Os course you will take dinner with
us?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t know that I can,” he
replied, with his embarrassed eyes on
the doorknob. “I put up at the hotel
and —they’ll expect me back to din
ner.”
ness.
II. —Speak the Truth. —(Vs. 7 to 11.)
Jeremiah delivered a message from
God and it was uttered by direct com
mandment. (See verses 1 and 2.) His
message was a call to repentance and
the blessing that should follow. (V. 3.)
His message was one of doom if the
people would not repent. (Vs. 4 to
6.) “The priest and the prophets and
all the people took him saying, Thou
shalt surely die.” This is true today,
the bitterest opposition to God’s word
comes from people who are supposed
to be and claim to be the true min
isters of the gospel and some profes
sors of theology in some schools. Jere
miah was a faithful servant and spoke
“all that God commanded him to
speak,” and spoke it “unto all the peo
ple.” The priests, prophets and peo
ple were angry and demanded his life
as a forfeit for so speaking. This has
always been true; John the Baptist
must lose his head for speaking the
truth. Prophets and Apostles must
suffer persecution find death tor deliv-
The Golden Age for July 27,1911.
And the absurdity of this was so
evident that she threw up her head
and laughed at it.
He caught sight of the motion in a
fleeting glance. That had been one
of the ways of her girlhood, a charm
ing little way, when the head had
been crowned with a wealth of brown
hair and the blue eyes sparkled and
the lips were red. Then he dropped
his head with a groan.
“I must go, Miss Alethea,” he said.
“I will be in town several days and
will see you again.”
♦ * *
‘‘Well,” said the confidential friend
who had happened to come with him to
the hotel, “did you see your friend
of the olden time?”
“Yes, I saw her,” he retorted irrita
bly, turning his face away. “And I
am going to leave town this evening.
I can not see her again.”
“What’s the matter?” questioned
the friend in amazement.
“Why, man, she’s old,” said Mr.
Hamilton, recklessly flinging his be
longings back into the trunk which
he had fatuously brought with him
in the expectation of remaining many
days.
‘‘Well, it’s my opinion that you’re
no schoolboy yourself,” said the
friend rudely, after which it will be
readily understood that the two quar
reled and that the friend took him
self off without delay.
* * *
“Well?” questioned Miss Bangs
crossly. Mr. Hamilton had been gone
a long time, but Miss Alethea had
just come in, complaining that the
glare of the sun in the window had
hurt her eyes.
“Well,” said Miss Alethea, with her
face turned away. “I found Mr. Ham
ilton looking changed. He’s —he’s
looking much older and more broken
than I expected to see him. I don’t
care to meet him again. I think I
will go up to Springville this even
ing and spend a week with Jeremiah’s
folks.”
A tall, gray man with a little stoop
in his shoulders paused beside the
ering God’s message, and the preacher
and teacher of today that will faith
fully preach the whole truth of God
must expect persecution; but along
with it he will have the presence of
the Master with him and the peace of
God will fill his heart. The people
instead of listening to and obeying
God’s message began to persecute the
messenger. Those who are in rebel
lion against God are still demanding
that God’s messengers must keep si
lence or must prophesy some things.
(Isa. 30-9 to 11; Amos 5-10; Matt. 21-
23; Acts 4-17 to 19; Acts 5-28.) Jere
miah had to stand alone and all who
will be faithful to God must sometimes
stand alone.
111. —Give a Reason for What You
D 0 . —(v s . 12 to 15.) —The people ask
ed Jeremiah why he had prophesied
against the house and city. (V. 9.) He
gave them the very best answer, “The
Lord sent me to prophesy against this
house and against this city all the
words that ye have heard.” (V. 12.)
Let ue at all ttam careful to teach
only seat in the car that had but one
occupant.
‘‘ls this seat taken, ma’am?” he ask
ed, and when she shook her head, he
sat down. He had been there several
moments and the train was well under
way before he noticed the thin, white
little hand that lay upon the top of
a satchel in her lap, and a small, old
fashioned ring on one of the fingers.
Then his eyes leaped, startled, to
her face. She recognized him at the
same moment.
“Jimmie!” she cried, the old name
slipping out before she could think.
‘‘Alethea!” he said, and a thrill of
warmth and color swept suddenly
back over both hearts.
“I had to take a little run up the
road —on business,” he said menda
ciously. “Let me lower this shade;
the sun’s in your eyes.”
How refined and womanly she look
ed! How dainty she was in all her
belongings!
“I am going to Springville—on bus
iness, too,” she said shyly.
How thoughtful that was of him to
pull down the blind! How long it had
been since any one had been thought
ful for her!
“Do you know,” he said, looking at
her earnestly and attentively, “you
have really changed very little? I
should have known you anywhere—
now that I have a chance to observe
you closely.”
“Oh, I have changed far more than
you have!” she cried, generously.
He moved a little nearer. His
sleeve touched her arm. What talk
was this about youth having fled?
She could feel that sleeve against her
arm making sudden summer in her
soul.
"Going up to Jeremiah’s for a few
days?” he said. “I wonder if you
would allow me to go along with you?
I was always friends with Jeremiah.”
She looked up and smiled at him,
and her eyes fell. But the swift smile
had effaced so many of the years
that he cried with a rush of the old
time tenderness:
“I declare, Alethea, you haven’t
changed at all!”
and preach the word of God and ever
be ready to give the scriptural proof
that what we do and say is correct, so
that if men fight us and what we
say, they must fight against God.
IV.—Trust God and Fear No Man. —
(Vs. 16 to 19.) —God is the only one we
can safely trust. (Ps. 118-8 and 9; Jer.
17-5 to 8.) God was pleased with Jere
miah and his ways, and caused the
princes and all the people to take
sides with Jeremiah. They rose in
his defense. Their friendship was
not lasting. They soon turned against
him again. It is never safe to de
pend on man; he is too changeable;
but our God is unchangeable and we
can safely trust Him. The man that
faithfully proclaims God’s message is
not “worthy to die, no matter how
stern his message. He is worthy of
honor and praise, and the Lord will in
due time cause him to be honored
and will never permit his life to be
taken until his work is done. The
man that lives in the will of God, ig
immortal until Uls work U done.
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