It were far easier to feel the blast
and storm than again to hear unwelcome tones fall on his ears. Despite
his feeble faith, he walked to the door and gave a timid rap.
The door flew open wide, as though the hinges were oiled with love;
and there stood before him a form all radiant with smiles of welcome.
She bade him enter; and the traveler, already warm with her bright
smiles and words of welcome, felt a glow pervade his whole being,--a
feeling new and unfelt before; for he had never, before this absence from
his father's house, known a want or woe.
Both food and shelter did the woman give unto him; and, when the morning
sun came over the eastern hills, another sun of joy and gratitude was
shining over his hills of doubt. And when the woman turned from his warm,
full thanks, and went about her daily tasks, these words came with a new
life and meaning to her mind: "As ye have done it to the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
Years rolled away. The murmur of their deeds was like the distant
rumbling of retreating clouds after a great storm.
The youth visited strange cities, saw nations at war with each other,
and learned the conflict of the human soul, and how it battles in the
great life which threatens to bear it down each hour. Amid all this
strife and selfishness of heart, he found many that were loyal to God and
Truth. He daily learned rich lessons which he would not have effaced
for all the gold and pomp of earth.
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