"Can't you sleep, my dear?" she asked, kindly. "Is the pain very bad?"
"Yes, very, and my head aches, and I am so thirsty," complained Ellen.
The nurse held a glass of toast-water to her lips; then shook up the pillow, and placed her in a more easy position.
"There, now you will sleep, I think," she said, as she left her side.
But no, there was no rest for that weary, conscience-stricken spirit. The same thoughts revolved in her mind, the same fears distressed her. The King of Terrors, like a grim enemy, confronted her, and she saw not the Prince of Life, who has despoiled him of his power.
But in the midst of her distress, there floated across her mind words heard some time before and forgotten. What recalled them she knew not. Doubtless the Holy Spirit prompted their recollection.
"'As many as touched Him were made whole.'"
Long had the words slumbered in her memory; now they awoke, and gave their message to the heart that so sorely needed it.
She recalled the occasion when she had first heard them. The scene in Farmer Holroyd's barn presented itself to her mental vision. Again she saw the earnest young preacher, and the eagerly-listening people. She remembered the nature of the discourse then uttered; the graphic description of the leprosy of sin, and the misery and death to which it would lead. Ah, she understood it all now, as she did not then. The leprosy was cleaving to her flesh; she felt its contamination, but no remedy could she command. Yet what did the words say—those words which she recollected the preacher had bidden her remember?
"'As many as touched Him were made whole.'"