Theodosia Garrison shows in these verses the melting power of love:
When I came to you banned, dishonored,
Brother of yours no more,
And raised my hands where your roof-tree stands,
Why did you open the door?
When I came to you starving--thirsting,
Beggared of aught but sin,
Why did you rise with welcoming eyes
And lift me and bid me in?
You have set me the first at the feast
And robed me in tenderness,
Yet, brothers of mine, these tears for sign
That I would your grace were less.
For I had not been crusht by your hate
Who courted the pain thereof,
But you stab me through when you give anew,
O brothers, your love--your love!
(Text.)
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* * * * *
This pathetic incident is told by Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman:
Mr. Moody told me that he was once invited to luncheon in one
of the great homes in the city of New York. He noticed that
his hostess was continually rising and leaving the room. He
said to himself, “She must be in trouble. If she goes again I
will follow her.” She did go out again and our great evangelist
rose from the table and went out into the next room. When the
mother saw him she was plunged into confusion. Her face flushed
a fiery red. Seated upon the couch in the room was a boy with
dishevelled hair, with bloodshot eyes, with clothing in rags.
The mother recovered herself in a moment, walked across the
room as if she had been a queen, threw her arms around her boy.
Then, walking over to our great preacher, she said: “Mr. Moody,
I do not think you have ever met my son. This is my boy, Mr.
Moody; he is a prodigal, but I love him.” Mr. Moody said she put
her lips up against the boy’s cheek and he suddenly burst into
a flood of tears, dropt on his knees and, after Mr. Moody had
spoken to him, he came to Christ. (Text.)
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