Julia Cloud tried to recall her troubled thoughts to the subject in hand.
“Well, God had them build the tabernacle for worship, you know, dear; told them how to make everything even to the minutest details, and established worship. That was to be part of the Sabbath day, a place to worship, and a promise that He would be there to meet any one who came. That promise holds good to-day. You needn’t ever think about the minister. Just fancy you see Christ in the pulpit. He is there, come to meet His own, you know. He’ll be in that Christian Endeavor to-night. He was in the tabernacle of old. There was a brightness in the cloud of His presence to show the people that God had come down to meet them. They were children, and had to be helped by a visible manifestation.”
“Yes, that would be something like!” said Allison. “If we could see something to help us believe–––”
“Those who truly believe with the heart will have the assurance,” said Julia Cloud earnestly. “I know.”
There was something in her tone and the look of her eye that added, “For I have experienced it.” The young people looked at her, and were silent. There was a long, quiet pause in which the sounds of the falling nuts and the whispering of the hemlocks closed in about them, and made the day and hour a sacred time. At last Leslie broke the silence.
“Well, Cloudy, suppose we go to church and Christian Endeavor. What can we do the rest of the day? We don’t have to go to church every minute, do we? I don’t really see how it’s going to do me any good. I don’t, indeed.”
Julia Cloud smiled at her wistfully. It was so wonderfully sweet to have this bright, beautiful young thing asking her these vital questions.
“Why, deary, it’s just a day to spend with God and get to enjoy His company,” she said. “Let me read you this verse in Isaiah: ‘Blessed’––that means, ‘O the happiness of’: I’ll read it so––‘O the happiness of the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord’––there, Leslie, that means us, or any Gentiles that want to be Christ’s––‘speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated us from his people.... For thus saith the Lord to’ them ‘that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer’––you see, Allison, there’s a promise that will secure you from feeling the service dull and dry if you are willing to comply with its conditions––‘their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.’”