He did not move a step. But young Tom stepped hurriedly forward, and catching his father’s hand in both of his, cried out:
“My father shan’t beg my pardon. I beg yours, father, for everything I ever did to displease you, but I WASN’T to blame in this. I wasn’t, indeed.”
“Tom, I beg your pardon,” said the hard man, overcome at last. “And now, sir,” he added, turning to me, “will you let by-gones be by-gones between my boy and me?”
There was just a touch of bitterness in his tone.
“With all my heart,” I replied. “But I want just a word with you in the shop before I go.”
“Certainly,” he answered, stiffly; and I bade the old and the young man good night, and followed him down stairs.
“Thomas, my friend,” I said, when we got into the shop, laying my hand on his shoulder, “will you after this say that God has dealt hardly with you? There’s a son for any man God ever made to give thanks for on his knees! Thomas, you have a strong sense of fair play in your heart, and you GIVE fair play neither to your own son nor yet to God himself. You close your doors and brood over your own miseries, and the wrongs people have done you; whereas, if you would but open those doors, you might come out into the light of God’s truth, and see that His heart is as clear as sunlight towards you. You won’t believe this, and therefore naturally you can’t quite believe that there is a God at all; for, indeed, a being that was not all light would be no God at all. If you would but let Him teach you, you would find your perplexities melt away like the snow in spring, till you could hardly believe you had ever felt them. No arguing will convince you of a God; but let Him once come in, and all argument will be tenfold useless to convince you that there is no God. Give God justice. Try Him as I have said.—Good night.”
He did not return my farewell with a single word. But the grasp of his strong rough hand was more earnest and loving even than usual. I could not see his face, for it was almost dark; but, indeed, I felt that it was better I could not see it.
I went home as peaceful in my heart as the night whose curtains God had drawn about the earth that it might sleep till the morrow.