The Following of the Star: A Romance

DAVID IN AFRICA
AUTHOR OF THE ROSARY, THE MISTRESS OF SHENSTONE, Etc. NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1911 by G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 17th Printing
The Rosary The Mistress of Shenstone Through the Postern Gate The Upas Tree The Following of the Star The Broken Halo The Wall of Partition My Heart's Right There
This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
To MY SON IN THE MINISTRY C. C. B.



David Rivers closed his Bible suddenly, slipped it into the inner pocket of his coat, and, leaning back in his armchair, relaxed the tension at which he had been sitting while he mentally put his thoughts into terse and forcible phraseology.
His evening sermon was ready. The final sentence had silently thrilled into the quiet study, in the very words in which it would presently resound through the half-empty little village church; and David felt as did the young David of old, when he had paused at the brook and chosen five smooth stones for his sling, on his way to meet the mighty champion of the Philistines. David now felt ready to go forward and fight the Goliath of apathy and inattention; the life-long habit of not listening to the voice of the preacher, or giving any heed to the message he brought.
The congregation, in this little Hampshire village church where, during the last five weeks, David had acted as locum-tenens, consisted entirely of well-to-do farmers and their families; of labourers, who lounged into church from force of habit, or because, since the public-houses had been closed by law during the hours of divine service, it was the only warmed and lighted place to be found on a Sunday evening; of a few devout old men and women, to whom weekly church-going, while on earth, appeared the only possible preparation for an eternity of Sabbaths in the world to come; and of a fair sprinkling of village lads and lassies, who took more interest in themselves and in each other than in the divine worship in which they were supposed to be taking part.