AT MRS. POWLIS'S.
"I glanced within a rock's cleft breast,
A lonely, safely-sheltered nest.
There as successive seasons go,
And tides alternate ebb and flow,
Full many a wing is trained for flight
In heaven's blue field--in heaven's broad light."
The next morning at breakfast Eleanor and her aunt were alone as usual.
There was no avoiding anything.
"Did you have a pleasant evening?" Mrs. Caxton asked.
"I had a very pleasant ride, aunt Caxton."
"How was the sermon?"
"It was--I suppose it was very good; but it was very peculiar."
"In what way?"
"I don't know, ma'am;--it excited the people very much. They could not
keep still."
"Do you like preaching better that does not excite people?"
Eleanor hesitated. "No, ma'am; but I do not like them to make a noise."
"What sort of a noise?"
Eleanor paused again, and to her astonishment found her own lip
quivering and her eyes watering as she answered,--"It was a noise of
weeping and of shouting--not loud shouting; but that is what it was."
"I have often known such effects under faithful presenting of the
truth," said Mrs. Caxton composedly. "When people's feelings are much
moved, it is very natural to give them expression."
"For uncultivated people, particularly."
"I don't know about the cultivation," said Mrs. Caxton. "Robert Hall's
sermons used to leave two thirds of his hearers on their feet. I have
seen a man in middle life, a judge in the courts, one of the heads of
the community in which he lived, so excited that he could not undo the
fastenings of his pew door; and he put his foot on the seat and sprang
over into the aisle."
"Do you like such things, aunt Caxton?"
"I prefer another mode of getting out of church, my dear."
"But shouting, or crying out, is what people of refinement would not
do, even if they could not open their pew doors."
Eleanor was a little sorry the moment she had uttered this speech; her
spirits were in a whirl of disorder and uncomfortableness, and she had
spoken hastily. Mrs. Caxton answered with great composure.
"What do you call those words that you are accustomed to hear, the
'Gloria in Excelsis'?--'Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace,
good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee,
we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord
God, heavenly King.'"
"What do you call it, aunt Caxton?"
"If it is not a shout of joy, I can make nothing of it. Or the one
hundred and fiftieth psalm--'O praise God in his holiness; praise him
in the firmament of his power. Praise him in his noble acts; praise him
according to his excellent greatness. Praise him in the sound of the
trumpet; praise him upon the lute and harp. Praise him in the cymbals
and dances; praise him upon the strings and pipe. Praise him upon the
well tuned cymbals; praise him upon the loud cymbals. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord.'--What is that but a shout of praise?"
"It never sounded like a shout," said Eleanor.
"It did once, I think," said Mrs. Caxton.
"When was that, ma'am?"
"When Ezra sang it, with the priests and the people to help him, after
they were returned from captivity. Then the people shouted with a loud
shout, and the noise was heard afar off. All the people shouted with a
great shout, when they praised the Lord."
"But aunt Caxton," said Eleanor, who felt herself taken down a little,
as a secure talker is apt to be by a manner very composed in his
opponent--"it is surely the habit of refined persons in these times not
to get excited--or not to express their feelings very publicly?"
"A very good habit," said Mrs. Caxton. "Nevertheless I have seen a
man--a gentleman--and a man in very high standing, in a public
assembly, go white with anger and become absolutely speechless, with
the strength of passion, at some offence he had taken."
"O such passions, of course, will display themselves sometimes," said
Eleanor. "Bad passions often will. They escape control."
"I have seen a lady--a lovely and refined lady--faint away at the
sudden tidings that a child's life was secure,--whom she had almost
given up for lost."
"But, dear aunt Caxton! you do not call that a parallel case?"
"A parallel case with what?"
"Anybody might be excited at such a thing. You would wonder if they
were not."
"I do not see the justness of your reasoning, Eleanor. A man may turn
white with passion, and it is natural; woman may faint with joy at
receiving back her child from death; and you are not surprised. But the
joy of suddenly seeing eternal life one's own--the joy of knowing that
God has forgiven our sins--you think may be borne calmly. I have known
people faint under that joy as well."
"Aunt Caxton," said Eleanor, her voice growing hoarse, "I do not see
how anybody can have it. How can they know their sins are forgiven?"
"You may find it in your Bible, Eleanor; did you never see it there?
'The Spirit witnesseth with our spirit, that we are the children of
God.'"
"But Paul was inspired?"
"Yes, thank God!--to declare that dividend of present joy to all
shareholders in the stock of eternal life. But doubtless, only faith
can take it out."
Eleanor sat silent, chewing bitter thoughts. "O this is what these
people have!"--she said to herself;--"this is the helmet of salvation!
And I am as far from it as ever!" The conversation ended there. Eleanor
was miserable all day. She did not explain herself; Mrs. Caxton only
saw her preoccupied, moody, and silent.
"There is preaching again at Glanog to-night," she said a few days
afterwards; "I am not yet quite well enough to go. Do you choose to go,
Eleanor?"
Eleanor looked down and answered yes.
She went; and again, and again, and again. Sundays or week days,
Eleanor missed no chance of riding her pony to the little valley
church. Mrs. Caxton generally went with her, after the first week; but
going in her car she was no hindrance to the thoughtfulness and
solitude of the rides on horseback; and Eleanor sometimes wept all the
way home, and oftener came with a confused pain in her heart, dull or
acute as the case might be. She saw truth that seemed beautiful and
glorious to her; she saw it in the faces and lives as well as in the
words of others; she longed to share their immunity and the peace she
perceived them possessed of; but how to lay hold of it she could not
find. She seemed to herself too evil ever to become good; she tried,
but her heart seemed as hard as a stone. She prayed, but no relief
came. She did not see how she _could_ be saved, while evil had such a
hold of her; and to dislodge it she was powerless. Eleanor was in a
constant state of uneasiness and distress now. Her usually fine temper
was more easily roughened than she had ever known it; the services she
had long been accustomed to render to others who needed her, she felt
it now very hard to give. She was dissatisfied with herself and very
unhappy, and she said to herself that she was unfit to properly
minister to anybody else. She became a comparatively silent and
ungenial companion to her aunt. Mrs. Caxton perhaps understood her; for
she made no remark on this change, seemed to take no notice; was as
evenly and tenderly affectionate to her niece as ever before, with
perhaps a little added expression of sympathy now and then. She did not
even ask an explanation of Eleanor's manner of getting out of church.
Eleanor and her aunt, as it happened, always occupied a seat very near
the front and almost under the pulpit. It had been Eleanor's custom
ever since the first time she came there, to slip out of her seat and
make her way down the aisle with eager though quiet haste; leaving her
aunt to follow at her leisure; and she was generally mounted and off
before Mrs. Caxton reached the front door. During the service always
now, Eleanor's eyes were fastened upon the preacher; his often looked
at her; he recognized her of course; and Eleanor had a vague fear that
if she were not out of the way he would some time or other come down
and accost her. It was an unreasoning fear; she gave no account of it
to herself; except that her mind was in an unsettled, out-of-order
state, that would not bear questioning; and if he came he would be
certain to question her. So Eleanor fled and let her aunt do the
talking--if any there were. Eleanor never asked and never knew.
This went on for some weeks. Spring had burst upon the hills, and the
valleys were green in beauty and flushing with flowers; and Eleanor's
heart was barren and cold more than she had ever felt it to be. She
began to have a most miserable opinion of herself.
It happened one night, what rarely happened, that Mr. Rhys had some one
in the pulpit with him. Eleanor was sorry; she grudged to have even the
closing prayer or hymn given by another voice. But it was so this
evening; and when Eleanor rose as usual to make her quick way out of
the house, she found that somebody else had been quick. Mr Rhys stood
beside her. It was impossible to help speaking. He had clearly come
down for the very purpose. He shook hands with Eleanor.
"How do you do?" he said. "I am glad to see you here. Is your mind at
rest yet?"
"No," said Eleanor. However it was, this meeting which she had so
shunned, was not entirely unwelcome to her when it came. If anything
would make her feel better, or any counsel do her good, se was willing
to stand even questioning that might lead to it. Mr. Rhys's questioning
on this occasion was not very severe. He only asked her, "Have you ever
been to class?"
"To what?" said Eleanor.
"To a class-meeting. You know what that is?"
"Yes,--I know a little. No, I have never been to one."
"I should like to see you at mine. We meet at Mrs. Powlis's in the
village of Plassy, Wednesday afternoon."
"But I could not, Mr. Rhys. It would not be possible for me to say a
word before other people; it would not be possible."
"I will try not to trouble you with difficult questions. Promise me
that you will come. It will not hurt you to hear others speak."
Eleanor hesitated.
"Will you come and try?"
"Yes."
"There!" said Eleanor to herself as she rode away,--"now I have got my
head in a net, and I am fast. I going to such a place! What business
have I there?--" And yet there was a sweet gratification in the hope
that somehow this new plan might bring her good. But on the whole
Eleanor disliked it excessively, with all the power of mature and
cultivation. For though frank enough to those whom she loved, a proud
reserve was Eleanor's nature in regard to all others whom she did not
love; and the habits of her life were as far as possible at variance
with this proposed meeting, in its familiar and social religious
character. She could not conceive how people should wish to speak of
their intimate feelings before other people. Her own shrank from
exposure as morbid flesh shrinks from the touch. However, Wednesday
came.
"Can I have Powis this afternoon, aunt Caxton?"
"Certainly, my dear; no need to ask. Powis is yours. Are you going to
Mrs. Pynce?"
"No ma'am.--" Eleanor struggled.--"Mr. Rhys has made me promise to go
to his class. I do not like to go at all; but I have promised."
"You will like to go next time," said Mrs. Caxton quietly. And she said
no more than that.
"Will I?" thought Eleanor as she rode away. But if there was anything
harsh or troubled in her mood of mind, all nature breathed upon it to
soften it. The trees were leafing out again; the meadows brilliant with
fresh green; the soft spring airs wooing into full blush and beauty the
numberless spring flowers; every breath fragrant with new sweetness.
Nothing could be lovelier than Eleanor's ride to the village; nothing
more soothing to a ruffled condition of thought; and she arrived at
Mrs. Powlis's door with an odd kind of latent hopefulness that
something good might be in store for her there.
Her strange and repugnant feelings returned when she got into the
house. She was shewn into a room where several other persons were
sitting, and where more kept momently coming in. Greetings passed
between these persons, very frank and cordial; they were all at home
there and accustomed to each other and to the business; Eleanor alone
was strange, unwonted, not in her element. That feeling however changed
as soon as Mr. Rhys came in. Where he was, there was at least one
person whom she had sympathy, and who had some little degree of
sympathy with her. Eleanor's feelings were destined to go through a
course of discipline before the meeting was over.
It began with some very sweet singing. There were no books; everybody
knew the words that were sung, and they burst out like a glad little
chorus. Eleanor's lips only were mute. The prayer that followed stirred
her very much. It was so simple, so pure, so heavenward in its
aspirations, so human in its humbleness, so touching in its sympathies.
For they reached _her_, Eleanor knew by one word. And when the prayer
was ended, whatever might follow, Eleanor was glad she had come to that
class-meeting.
But what followed she found to be intensely interesting. In words, some
few some many, one after another of the persons present gave an account
of his progress or of his standing in the Christian life. Each spoke
only when called upon by Mr. Rhys; and each was answered in his turn
with a word of counsel or direction or encouragement, as the case
seemed to need. Sometimes the answer was in the words of the Bible; but
always, whatever it were, it was given, Eleanor felt, with singular
appositeness to the interests before him. With great skill too, and
with infinite sympathy and tenderness if need called for it; with
sympathy invariably. And Eleanor admired the apt readiness and kindness
and wisdom with which the answers were framed; so as to suggest without
fail the lesson desired to be given, yet so suggest it should be felt
by nobody as a imputation or a rebuke. And ever and again the little
assembly broke out into a burst of song, a verse or two of some hymn,
that started naturally from the last words that had been said. Those
bursts of song touched Eleanor. They were so plainly heartfelt, so
utterly glad in their utterances, that she had never head the like. No
choir, the best trained in the world, could give such an effect with
their voices, unless they were also trained and meet to be singers in
heaven. One of the choruses pleased Eleanor particularly. It was sung
in a wild sweet tune, and with great energy.
"There's balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole.
There's power enough in Jesus--
To save a sin-sick soul."
It was just after this was finished, that Mr Rhys in his moving about
the room, came and stood before Eleanor. He asked her "Do You love
Jesus?"
It is impossible to express the shame and sorrow which Eleanor
answered, "No."
"Do you wish to be a Christian?"
Eleanor bowed her head.
"Do you intend to be one?"
Eleanor looked up, surprised at the wore, and answered, "If I can."
"Do you think," said he very tenderly, "that you have a right to that
'_if_'--when Jesus has said, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and _I will give you rest?_'"
He turned from her, and again struck the notes they had been singing.
"There's balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole.
There's power enough in Jesus
To save a sin-sick soul."
The closing prayer followed, which almost broke Eleanor's heart in two;
it so dealt with her and for her. While some of those present were
afterward exchanging low words and shakes of the hand, she slipped away
and mounted her pony.
She was in dreadful confusion during the first part of her ride. Half
resentful, half broken-hearted. It was the last time, she said to
herself, that ever she would be found in a meeting like that. She would
never go again; to make herself a mark for people's sympathy and a
subject for people's prayers. And yet--surely the human mind seems an
inconsistent thing at times,--the thought of that sympathy and those
prayers had a touch of sweetness in it, which presently drew a flood of
tears from Eleanor's eyes. There was one old man in particular, of
venerable appearance, who had given a most dignified testimony of faith
and happiness, whose "Amen!" recurred to her. It was uttered at the
close of a petition Mr. Rhys had made in her favour; and Eleanor
recalled it now with a strange mixture of feelings. Why was she so
different from him and from the rest of those good people? She knew her
duty; why was it not done? She seemed to herself more hard-hearted and
evil than Eleanor would formerly have supposed possible of her; she had
never liked herself less than she did during this ride home. Her mind
was in a rare turmoil, of humiliation and darkness and sorrow; one
thing only was clear; that she never would go to a class-meeting again!
And yet it would be wrong to say that she was on the whole sorry she
had gone once, or that she really regretted anything that had been done
or said. But this once should suffice her. So she went along, dropping
tears from her eyes and letting Powis find his way as he pleased; which
he was quite competent to do.
By degrees her eyes cleared to see how lovely the evening was falling.
The air sweet with exhalations from the hedge-rows and meadows, yes and
from the more distant hills too; fragrant and balmy. The cattle were
going home from the fields; smoke curled up from a hundred chimney tops
along the hillsides and the valley bottom; the evening light spread
here and there in a broad glow of colour; fair snatches of light were
all that in many a place the hills and the bottom could catch. Every
turn in the winding valley brought a new combination of wonderful
beauty into view; and shadows and light, and flower-fragrance, and
lowing cattle along the ways, and wreaths of chimney smoke; all spoke
of peace. Could the spell help reaching anybody's heart? It reached
Eleanor's; or her mood in some inexplicable way soothed itself down;
for when she reached the farmhouse, though she thought of herself in
the same humbled forlorn way as ever, her thought of the class-meeting
had changed.
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Old Helmet, Volume I, by Susan Warner