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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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turn tide of joy and courage. So was it now with Tom. The atheistic taunts of his cruel master sunk his before dejected soul to the lowest ebb; and, though the hand of faith still held to the eternal rock, it was with a numb, despairing grasp. Tom sat, like one stunned, at the fire. Suddenly everything round him seemed to fade, and a vision rose before him of One crowned with thorns, buffeted and bleeding. Tom gazed, in awe and wonder, at the majestic patience of the face; the deep, pa- thetic eyes thrilled him to his inmost heart; his soul woke, as, with floods of emo- tion, he stretched out his hands and fell upon his knees,- when, gradually, the vision changed; the sharp thorns became rays of glory; and, in splendor inconceiv- able, he saw that same face bending compassionately towards him, and a voice said, “He that overcometh shall sit down with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father on his throne.” How long Tom lay there, he knew not. When he came to himself, the fire was gone out, his clothes were wet with the chill and drenching dews; but the dread soul-crisis was past, and, in the joy that filled him, he no longer felt hunger, cold, degradation, disappointment, wretchedness. From his deepest soul, he that hour loosed and parted from every hope in the life that now is, and offered his own will an unquestioning sacrifice to the Infinite. Tom looked up to the silent, ever- living stars,- types of the angelic hosts who ever look down on man; and the soli- tude of the night rung with the triumphant words of a hymn, which he had sung often in happier days, but never with such feeling as now: |
