TOM HAMMOND REVIEWING.
It was the morning after Tom Hammond had found Christ, and had closed
with the great offer of redemption. He had scarcely slept for the joy of
the two loves that had so suddenly come into his life.
During the sleepless hours, he had learned, for the first time in his
life, the true secret of prayer, and that even greater secret, that of
communion.
With real prayer there is always a certain degree of communion, but real,
deep, soul-filling communion is more often found in seasons when the
communing one asks for nothing, but, silent before his or her God, the
sense of the Divine fills all the being, and if the lips utter any sound
it is the cry, “My Lord and my God!”
Tom Hammond, reviewing all that God had revealed to him, learned in those
first hours of his new birth the secret of adoring communion with God.
In the book of extracts he had been reading in the tube train at the
moment when he had first heard of Major H——’s coming address on the
Second Advent, he had come across one headed, “Frederick William Faber:
The Precious Blood—chap. iv.” He had at the time been considerably
impressed with the extract, though there was a certain note about it
which he had failed to understand. In the flush of the great revelation
that had come to his soul (in that little meeting at Spitalfields), he
now found the book, and re-read the extract:
“I was upon the sea-shore; and my heart filled with love it knew not why.
Its happiness went out over the wide waters, and upon the unfettered
wind, and swelled up into the free dome of blue sky until it filled it.
The dawn lighted up the faces of the ivory cliffs, which the sun and sea
had been blanching for centuries of God’s unchanging love. The miles of
noiseless sands seemed vast, as if they were the floors of eternity.
Somehow, the daybreak was like eternity. The idea came over me of that
feeling of acceptance which so entrances the soul just judged and just
admitted into heaven.
“‘To be saved!’ I said to myself, ‘to be saved!’
“Then the thoughts of all the things implied in salvation came in one
thought upon me; and I said:
“‘This is the one grand joy of life;’ and I clapped my hands like a
child, and spoke to God aloud. But then there came many thoughts, all in
one thought, about the nature and manner of our salvation. To be saved
with such a salvation!
“This was a grander joy, the second grand joy of life; and I tried to say
some lines of a hymn but the words were choked in my throat. The ebb was
sucking the sea down over the sand quite silently; and the cliffs were
whiter, and more day-like. Then there came many more thoughts all in one
thought, and I stood still without intending it.
“To be saved by such a Saviour! This was the grandest joy of all, the
third grand joy of life; and it swallowed up the other joys; and after it
there could be on earth no higher joy.
“I said nothing; but I looked at the sinking sea as it reddened in the
morning. Its great heart was throbbing in the calm; and methought I saw
the precious blood of Jesus in heaven, throbbing that hour with real
human love of me.”
“Yes,” murmured Tom Hammond, “after all, to be saved by such a Saviour
is a greater, higher, holier thought than the mere knowledge that one is
saved, or of the realization of what that salvation comprises.”
In every way that night was one never to be forgotten by Tom Hammond. He
needed, too, all the strength born of his new communion with God to meet
what awaited him with the coming of the new day’s daily papers.
The paper whom whose staff he had been practically dismissed in our first
chapter (the editor of which was his bitterest enemy) had found how to
use “the glass stiletto.”
Some of the most scurrilous paragraphs ever penned appeared in his
enemy’s columns that morning. It is true that the identity of the man
slandered (Tom Hammond) was veiled, but so thinly—so devilishly—that
every journalist, and a myriad other readers, would know against whom the
scurrilous utterances were hurled.
Tom Hammond would not have been human if the reading of the paragraphs
had not hurt him. And he would not have been “partaker of the Divine
nature,” as he now was, if he had not found a balm in the committal of
his soreness to God.
“That is the work of that fellow Joyce,” he told himself.
Twenty-four hours before, if this utterance had had to have been made by
him, he would have said,
“That beast Joyce!” But already, as a young soldier of Christ, the
promised watch was set upon his lips. In the strength of the two great
loves that had come into his life—the love of Christ and the love of
Zillah Robart—the scurrilous paragraphs affected him comparatively
little.
When he had skimmed the papers, attended to his correspondence, and to
one or two other special items, he took pen and paper and began to write
to his betrothed.
His pen flew over the smooth surface of the paper, but his thoughts were
even quicker than his pen. His whole being palpitated with love. It was
the love of his highest ideal. The love which he had sometimes dared to
hope might some day be his, but which he had scarcely dared to expect.
The memory of his passing fancy for Madge Finisterre crossed his mind,
once, as he wrote. He paused with the pen poised in his fingers, and
smiled that he should ever have thought it possible that he was beginning
to love her. “I liked her, admired her,” he mused. “I enjoyed her frank,
open friendship, but love her—no, no. The word cannot be named in the
same breath as my feeling for Zillah.”
He put his pen to the paper again, and poured out all the wealth of
the love of his heart to his beautiful betrothed. When he had finally
finished the letter, he sent it by special messenger to Zillah.
He had not forgotten that Major H——’s second meeting was that day. Three
o’clock found him again in the hall. This time it was quite full. There
was a new sense of interest, of understanding, present within him as he
entered the place. This time he bowed his head in real prayer.
The preliminary proceedings were almost identically like those of the
previous occasion, except that the hymn sung—though equally new to
Hammond—was different to either of those sung at the first meeting. But,
if anything, he was more struck by the words than he had been with those
of the other hymns.
And how rapturously the people sang:
“‘Till He come!’ Oh, let the words
Linger on the trembling chords;
Let the ‘little while’ between
In their golden light be seen;
Let us think how heaven and home
Lie beyond that ‘Till He come!’”
This time a lady, a returned Chinese missionary, led prayer, and then the
major resumed his subject.
“We saw, dear friends, at our last meeting,” the grand old
soldier-preacher began, “what were some of the prophesied signs of our
Lord’s second coming and how literally these signs were being fulfilled
in our midst to-day. This afternoon, God willing, and time permitting, I
want us to see how He will come; what will happen to the believer; and
also what effect the expectancy of His coming should have upon us, as
believers.
“First of all, how will He come? While Jesus, who had led His disciples
out of the city, was in the act of blessing them, He suddenly rose
before their eyes, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Have
you ever thought of this fact, beloved, that the cloud itself was a
miracle? Whoever heard of a cloud at that special period of the year, in
Palestine? And I very much doubt if anyone, save the apostles, in all the
country round about, saw that cloud. If you ask me what I think the cloud
was, I should be inclined to refer you to the 24th Psalm, and say that
the cloud was composed of the angel-convoy, who, like a guard of honour,
escorted the Lord back to glory, crying, as they neared the gates of the
celestial city, ‘Lift up your heads, oh, ye gates, and let the King of
Glory come in!”
“He went away in a cloud. The angels, addressing the amazed disciples
declared to them that ‘He would so come in like manner as ye have seen
Him go.’
“It may be that to the letter that will be fulfilled, and that our Lord’s
return for His Church will be in an actual cloud. I think it is probable
it will. Anyway, we know that He will come ‘in the air,’ for Paul, to
whom was given, by God, the privilege of revealing to His Church the
great mystery of the second coming of our Lord, and who said, in this
connection:
“‘Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,’ when writing more
explicitly to the church at Thessalonica, said:
“‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which
are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air;
and so shall ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with
these words.’
“Now, beloved, can any words be plainer, simpler, than these of Paul’s,
forming, as they do, the climax to all that has gone before in the New
Testament. Jesus had Himself said,
“‘I will come again and receive you unto Myself.’
“The angels said,
“‘In like manner as ye have seen Him go, He shall come again,’ and now
Paul amplifies this manner of His coming, while, at the same time, he
emphasizes the fact of that return.
“Now let us look, dear friends, at the separate items of that detailed
coming. We have already, more than once, alluded to the secrecy of the
return of our Lord for His people, and people are puzzled over the
language used by Paul’s description of the return. ‘The Lord shall come
with a shout.’ Then the world at large will hear Him coming? No; we think
not. Or, if they hear a sound, they will not understand it.
“The Lord’s voice in His spiritual revelations is never heard save by the
Lord’s people. But there is the voice of the archangel—how about that?
The same rule applies to that, we think.
“There were godly shepherds watching their flocks at night, near
Bethlehem, and there was a whole host of angels singing, but the
Bethlehemites did not hear. No one appears to have heard or seen anything
save the godly shepherds. The same, we believe, applies to the ‘trump,’
the call of God.
“In this connection it is interesting to note a fact that probably was
in the mind of Paul when he wrote thus to the Thessalonians. The Roman
army used three special trumpet-calls in connection with departure—with
marching.
“The first meant, ‘Pull down tents.’
“The second, ‘Get in array.’
“The third, ‘Start.’
“Did Paul, moved by the Holy Ghost, translate these three clarion notes
in the topic of 1 Thess. iv. 16, after this fashion:
“1. ‘The Lord Himself.’
“2. ‘Voice of the archangel.’
“3. ‘The trump of God.’
“But leaving that, again I would emphasize this truth, that it is only
the trained ear of the spiritually-awakened soul which ever hears the
call of God. We believe that all Scripture teaches the secrecy as well as
the suddenness of the rapture of the church.
“In all the many appearances of the risen, resurrected Lord Jesus, during
the many weeks between the resurrection and the ascension, even though,
on one occasion, at least, He was seen by 500 disciples at once, yet
there is no hint, either in the Word of God or in the records of history
of that time, that Jesus was ever seen by the eye of an unbeliever. And
depend upon it, no eye will see, no ear will hear Him, when He comes
again, save those who are in Christ.
“‘The world seeth Me no more’ our Lord said, ‘but ye see Me.’ ‘Him God
raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the
people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before God, even to us who
did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.’
“When the voice of the Father came from heaven, witnessing to Jesus’
truth, the people that stood by failed to hear it as a voice, but
exclaimed,—‘It thunders.’ In the case of Paul on the way to Damascus,
those with him heard nothing understandable.
“Enoch was taken secretly. Noah was shut into the ark before the flood
came. Only Israel, at Sinai, and not the surrounding nations, understood
those awful physical manifestations of God’s power. Elijah was taken
secretly. The nation neither saw nor heard anything of it.
“When will He come? I do not know; no one knows exactly; but this we do
know, from the Word of God—that nothing remains to be fulfilled before
He comes. He may come before this meeting closes. Again we know by every
sign of the times that His coming can not now be delayed much longer.
“Now to a very important feature as to the truth of the second coming of
the Lord. There are many who argue that such teaching will tend to make
the Christian worker careless of his work, his life, etc. There was never
a more foolish argument advanced.
“First take a concrete illustration that gives the flat denial to
it—namely, that the most spiritual-minded workers, at home and abroad,
are those whose hearts (not heads only) are saturated with, not the
doctrine merely, but the expectancy of their Lord’s near return. Then,
too, every such worker finds an incentive to redoubled service in the
remembrance that every soul saved through their instrumentality brings
the Lord’s return nearer—‘hasting His coming’—since, when the last unit
composing His Church has been gathered in, He will come.
“Scripture, dear friends, is most plain, most emphatic, in its statements
that the effect of living in momentary expectancy of our Lord’s return
touches the spiritual life and service at every point. ‘We know,’ wrote
John, ‘that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,
even as He is pure.’ That, beloved, is the general statement. Now let us
look at some of the separate particular statements.
“Writing to the Philippians, Paul connects heavenly mindedness with the
return of the Lord for His Church saying, ‘For our conversation’—our
manner of living, our citizenship—‘is in heaven; from whence also we
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.’ To the Colossians the
great apostle showed how the coming of the Lord was to be the incentive
to mortification of self. ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your
members which are upon the earth,’ etc. James taught that the real cure
for impatience was this dwelling in the hope and expectancy of our Lord’s
coming again. ‘Be ye also patient,’ he wrote; ‘stablish your hearts; for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh!’ We live in an age which is cursed
with impatience—children, young men and women, parents, business people,
domestic people, pastors, Christian workers, Sunday-school teachers, all
alike have their spiritual lives and their work marred by impatience. A
real, moment-by-moment heart-apprehension of the possible coming of Jesus
in the next moment of time, is the only real cure for this universal
impatience in the Christian Church.
“Then take another great sin in the Church, beloved—censoriousness. Oh,
the damage it does to the one who indulges in it, and the suffering it
causes to the one who is the victim of it. But here, again, a full,
a constant realization of the near coming of our Lord will check
censoriousness. Writing to the Corinthians, in his first epistle, Paul
says, ‘Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest
the counsels of the hearts.’
“The great quickener, too, of Christian diligence is to be found in the
coming of the Lord. Peter writes to us saying, ‘But the day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night, ... seeing then that these things
shall be, ... what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy living
and godliness; looking for and hasting the coming.... Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of
Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.’
“May I say, too, in all gentleness and love, that it has seemed to me,
for years, that the missing link in nearly all ‘holiness’ preaching (so
called) is this much-neglected expectancy of our Lord’s return. Paul
connects holiness and the second coming of Christ, in his first epistle
to the Thessalonians, saying, ‘The God of peace sanctify you wholly; and
I pray God your spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’
“The scoff of the world, dear friends, against us, as Christians, is that
the professed bond of love is absent from our life. And here again God’s
Word shows us that a real living in expectancy of our Lord’s return would
teach us to love one another. In that same epistle I have just quoted,
Paul says, ‘The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward
another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end He may
stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord with all His saints.’
“I have only time, this afternoon, for but one more of these references,
and that is a very elementary though a very essential one. Paul, in that
same epistle, teaches that to be saved means that we are saved to serve.
‘Ye turned to God,’ he says, ‘to serve ... and to wait for His Son from
heaven.’
“I must close, friends. But before I do, do let me beseech every
Christian here this afternoon to go aside with God, and with His plain,
unadulterated Word. Assure yourself that Jesus is coming again, that He
is coming soon, and that you are so living that you shall ‘not be ashamed
at His coming.’ Should He tarry till Thursday next, and He is willing to
suffer me to meet you here again, we will continue this great subject on
the line of the three judgments. Let us close our meeting by singing hymn
number 308.”
Like one in a strange, delicious dream, Tom Hammond rose with the others
and sang:
“Jesus is coming! Sing the glad word!
Coming for those He redeemed by His blood,
Coming to reign as the glorified Lord!
Jesus is coming again!”
As he left the hall, and thought, “How Zillah would have enjoyed, how she
would have been helped, by this meeting!” he muttered.
“How senseless of me not to have told her of it when I wrote this
morning.”
He smiled a little to himself as he murmured:
“May I take this bit of remissness as a sign that the Divine love was
predominant within me, rather than the human? Or was it that I am not yet
sufficiently taught in the school of human love?”
CHAPTER XIXa.
“MY MENTOR.”
It was about the hour that Tom Hammond entered the Hall to listen to the
Major’s second address. Cohen, the Jew, was in his workshop, his brain
busy with many problems, while his hands wrought out that wondrous Temple
work.
The door opened, quietly, and Zillah entered. She often came for a
talk with him at this hour, as she was mostly sure of an uninterrupted
conversation. Her sister, to a large extent, lived to eat, and always
slept for a couple hours or more after her hearty two o’clock dinner.
The young Jew gave the beautiful girl a pleasant greeting. Then, after
the exchange of a few very general words, the pair were silent. Zillah
broke the silence at last.
“Abraham,” she began, “I want to talk to you on—on—well—I’ve something
important to say.”
He eyed her curiously, a tender little smile moving about among the lines
of his mouth. There was a new note in her voice, a new light in her eyes.
He had caught glimpses of both when they had met at breakfast, and again
at dinner, but both were more marked than ever now.
He had laid down his tool at her first word of address. Now she laid one
of her pretty plump hands on his, as she went on:——
“You could not have been kinder, truer, dear Abraham, if you had been my
own brother, _after the flesh_. I have looked upon you _as_ a brother, as
a friend, as a protector, and I have always felt that I could, and would
make a confidant of you, should the needs-be ever arise.”
The gentle smile in his eyes as well as his mouth encouraged her, and she
went on:—
“A gentleman has asked me to marry him, Abraham——”
Cohen gave a quick little start, but in her eagerness she did not notice
it.
“I have promised,” she continued, “for I love him, and he loves me as
only——”
“Who is he, Zillah?”
“Mr. Hammond, dear!”
His eyes flashed with the mildest surprise. But, to her astonishment, she
noticed that he showed no anger.
In spite of all his usual gentleness she had half expected a little
outburst, for to marry _out_ of the Jewish faith, was equal in shame
almost to turning Meshumed, and usually brought down the curse of one’s
nearest and dearest.
“He is of the Gentile race, Zillah!” Cohen said quietly.
She noticed that he said _race_, and not _faith_, and she unconsciously
took courage from the fact.
She was silent for a moment. Her lips moved slightly, but no sound came
from her. Watching her, he wondered. She was praying!
Suddenly she lifted her head, proudly almost. She suffered her great
lustrous eyes,—liquid in their love-light—to meet his, as she said, with
a ringing frankness:——
“Abraham! I have found the Messiah! He whom the Gentiles call the Christ;
The man-God, Jesus, _is_ the Messiah!”
His eyes dwelt fixedly upon her face. She wondered that there was neither
anger nor indignation in them.
“May I tell you why I think, why I _know_ He is the Messiah, Abraham?”
she asked.
“Do, Zillah!”
He spoke very gently, and she wondered more and more. She made no remark,
however, on his toleration, but began to pour out her soul in the words
of the Old Testament scriptures, connecting them with their fulfillment
in the New Testament.
Cohen, watching her, thought of Deborah, for all her beautiful form
seemed suddenly ennobled under the power of the theme that fired her.
“Now I know, dear Abraham,” she presently cried, “How it is that Jehovah
is allowing our Rabbis—you told me, you know, the other day, of the one
at Safed—to be led to dates that prove that Messiah is coming soon? _Now_
I know why God has allowed our nation to be stirred up,—the Zionist
movement, the colonization of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, and all
else of this like—yes, it is because the Christ _is_ coming.
“Only, dear brother, it is not as the Messiah of the Jews that He comes
soon—He came thus more than 1,900 years ago—this time, when He comes, He
will come for His church, His redeemed ones—Jew and Gentile alike who
are washed in His blood that was shed on Calvary for all the human race.
For He was surely _God’s_ Lamb, and was slain at the Great, the last real
Passover, dear Abraham, if only we all—our race—could see this. What the
blood of that first Passover lamb, in Egypt, was in type, to our people
in their bondage and Blood-deliverance, so Jesus was in reality.”
Moses, of old, wist not how his face shone. And this lovely Jewish
maiden, as she talked of her Lord, wist not how all her lovely face
was transformed as she talked—_glorified_ would not be too strong a
description of the change her theme had wrought in her countenance.
“And now, dear Abraham,” she went on, “that same Jesus has not only
blotted out all my sin, for His name’s sake, but he bids me look for
Him to come again. When _next_ He comes—it may be before even this day
closes—”
Cohen shot a quick, puzzled glance at her. She did not notice it but went
on:—
“I have learned many things from the scriptures since I have been going
to the little Room at Spitalfields, and from the _Word_ of Jehovah,
Himself, I have learned that Jesus may now come at any moment.
“He will come _in the air_, and will catch away all His believing
children. Then, as the teachers show from the _Word_ of God, when the
church is gone, there shall arise a terrible power, a man who will be
Satan’s great agent to lead the whole world astray—_Anti_christ, the
Word of God calls him—then, during a period, probably about seven years
altogether, there shall be an ever growing persecution of those who shall
witness boldly for Jesus, and—”
“_Who_ will _they_ be, Zillah,” he interrupted, “if all the ‘Church,’ as
you say, will be taken out of the world at the coming of Christ?”
“One of the teachers, the other night, Abraham,” she replied, said, “that
the natural consequence of the sudden taking away of the Believers from
this earth would probably be, at first, a mighty revival, a turning to
God. If this be so, then these converts will be the witnesses to Jesus
during the awful seven years, which the Word of God calls The Great
Tribulation.”
“Then too, one of the teachers at the Room said, ‘it is possible that
not all Christians will be caught up in the air at the coming again of
Jesus, but _only_ those faithful ones who are found watching, expecting
His coming. If that be so—and no one dare dogmatise about so sacred and
solemn a thing—then there will be thousands of Christians left behind who
will have to pass through the awful time of Antichrist’s Tribulation.’”
Her face glowed with holy light, as inspired by the thought in her soul,
she went on:—
“At first, dear Abraham, our own race will return to Jerusalem, and to
all the land of our Father, still believing in the coming of the Messiah.
The temple—that wondrous Temple for which you are working—will be reared
to Jehovah. The morning and evening sacrifices will be resumed. Then
presently the Antichrist will make our people believe that he is the
Messiah. Pretending to be Israel’s friend and protector he will deceive
them at first, but, by and by, he will try to force idolatry upon them,
he will want to set up in our glorious Temple, (which will have been
reared to Jehovah,) an idol, an abomination.
“The teacher whom I have heard, Abraham,—and many of them are of our own
race—see from scripture that the great mass of our people, in the land of
our fathers, will blindly accept this hideous idol worship.
“But Jehovah will not let Antichrist have all his own way. Jesus, with
all those who were caught up with Him into the air, will come to the
deliverance of our people. He will come, _this_ time, to the earth. He
will fight against Antichrist, will overcome him, His feet shall stand on
the Mount of Olives.
“Our poor deluded, suffering people will see Him, as our own prophets
have said:—“_I will pour out upon the House of David and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, AND
THEY SHALL LOOK UPON ME WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED, AND THEY SHALL MOURN FOR
HIM, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for
Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born_.”
She paused abruptly, struck by Cohen’s quietude of manner, where she had
expected a storm. Gazing up wonderingly into his face she cried:—
“Abraham, why are you thus quiet? Why have you not cursed me for a
Meshumed, dear? Can it be that you, too, know aught of these glorious
truths?”
There was sadness and kindness in his eyes as he returned her pleading
glance. But there was no trace of anger.
“I wonder why, little sister,” he began, “I am not angry, as the men of
Israel’s faith usually are with a Meshumed, even though the defaulter
should be as beautiful as Zillah Robart?”
His glance grew kinder, as he went on:—“I began to wonder where my
little sister went, twice a week, in the evenings, and, anxious about
her, lest she, in her innocence of heart and ignorance of life, should
get into trouble, I followed her one night, and saw that she entered a
hall, which I knew to be a preaching-place for Jews.”
Zillah’s eyes were very wide with wonder. But she did not interrupt him.
“I did not enter the place myself,” he went on, “but that very first
night, while waiting about for a few minutes, I met an old friend, a
Jew like myself, by _race_, but a Christian by faith. He talked with
me, pointed to _our_ scriptures, quoted from the Gentile New Testament,
showed, from them, how, in every detail, the birth, the life, the death
of Jesus, the Nazarene, fulfilled the prophecies of our father, and——”
“And you, Abraham—” Zillah laid her hand on the Jew’s wrist, in a swift
gesture of excitement, “you, dear,” she cried, “see that Jesus was the
Messiah?”
Slowly, almost sorrowfully it seemed to the eager girl, he shook his head.
“I cannot say all that, Zillah,” he went on, “I sat in a seat, last
night, in that Hall, where I could see you and Hammond, where I could
hear all that was said upon the platform, but where I knew that neither
you nor Hammond would be able to see me. All that I heard, last night,
dear, has more than half convinced me, but—well, I cannot rush through
this matter, I have to remember that it has to do with the life beyond,
as well as this life.”
He sighed a little wearily.
“I saw the meeting between Hammond and you, Zillah,” he went on. “I had
before begun to scent something of Hammond’s probable feeling for you,
and I had seen you look at him in a way that, though you did not yourself
probably realize it, meant, I knew, a growing feeling for him warmer
than our maidens usually bestow on a Gentile. I saw you enter the cab
together, and drive off, and——”
He sighed again. Then without finishing his sentence, he said:
“Perhaps I shall see with you, Zillah, soon. Meanwhile, dear——”
He lifted his hands, let them rest upon her head, and softly, reverently,
cried:—
“The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon
thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon
thee, and give thee peace.”
The sweet old Nazarite blessing never fell more tenderly upon human ears
than it did upon Zillah Robart. Jehovah _had_ been very gracious to her.
She had feared anger, indignation from her brother-in-law, she received
blessing instead.
As he slowly lifted his hands from her head, she caught them in hers,
lifted them to her lips, and kissed them gratefully.
“May that blessing fall back upon your own head, upon your heart, your
life, dear Abraham?” she cried.
Still holding his hands, she lifted her head. An eager light filled all
her face, as she added:—
“It wants but a few days to Passover, dear, I shall pray God that He
will reveal Jesus fully to you before that!”
She dropped his hands, and made for the door. “I hear the children from
school,” she cried. Then she was gone.
Cohen did not turn to his work. But taking a New Testament from his
pocket, began to study anew the Passion of Jesus, as recorded in the
Gospels.