"Too bad; he'll bring in the kingdom of heaven and pit it against the Ring." But to the astonishment of every one, Mr. Jodderel said only:
"No one knows more of this blessed Comforter than I. My childish days were heavily clouded; I was abused in youth; I am misunderstood now; I have lost dear ones; a long procession has preceded me to the grave, each member of it leaving my heart more lonely than before, and the time has come when I am too old to search for new friends and dear ones. But upon my knees, or as I commune with him upon my bed in the night season, or when I read his precious promises given by word of mouth or through his holy prophets, I find consolation and hope and cheer, and forget that I am a lonely old man in an unsympathetic world."
"Captain Maile?" said Leader Bates, and the ex-warrior responded:
"Everything I have heard this morning agrees with my own experience, and no matter what doubters may say and hypocrites may help them to make people believe, I can never forget the special blessings I have received in affliction, and when I have least expected them."
Squire Woodhouse sat next to Captain Maile, and joined in the general acknowledgment by saying:
"You all know me, my friends; you know I've often had a pretty hard row to hoe, for often it's been in a shape that hoeing couldn't help. But when the worst has come, and I couldn't do anything but stand still and endure it; when I couldn't shake it off, or forget it, or improve it any way, there came in just when I couldn't expect it, or see how it could happen even with God managing it; when every one I leaned on failed me, and I had to shut myself up in my own miserable heart—then there came a visitor that made himself at home, helped me, changed me, made a new man of me, and showed me that the worst chance of man is the best one for God—blessings on his holy name forever."
Then Dr. Fahrenglotz said:
"For myself, I have no family ties. I never knew my parents, for they entered into the unknowable while I was yet a babe; I have had neither brother nor sister, but I have had friends, and they have passed away, leaving my heart as empty as if it had never contained any other denizen. I have felt the last pulsation of the heart-dealings of many of you, and have watched you afterward with a solicitude which it might have seemed officious for me to have expressed. And to myself and to others I have known true, mysterious comfort to come, I know not from where; the great outer, the intangible envelope of the human heart, is hidden from my sight and thought; but from it I know there comes a subtle mystery whose influence transcends that of mortals, and which influence is tender, soothing, and lasting—an influence which I cannot characterize more aptly than to say that it must come from some one or some principle of nature akin to that of Him whom most religious bodies denominate The Great Physician."
"Excuse me, gentlemen," said young Mr. Banty, who had come in late, and had, sorely against his will, been compelled to occupy a seat among those whom he called "the Saints;" "Excuse me; I didn't come in to say anything to-day, but, things going as they are, I can't be quiet. I went abroad a year ago; most of you know why. There was a lady in the question. She died; I suppose it was best for her, for I didn't, in the slightest degree, begin to be fit for her, but her death didn't hurt me any the less. I haven't, since then, been as good a man as I should have been. I don't mind saying that the ways in which I've tried to forget my trouble haven't been such as have done me any good. But as everybody else has opened his heart to-day, I wouldn't be a bit of a man if I kept mine shut. I want to say that when I have a quiet hour, and get to thinking about that girl, there's something happens that I don't understand, but I'm very thankful for. I got to be a great deal less despairing, though, at the same time, I think a great deal more tenderly about her. I lose my ugliness at losing her; I see how much better it was for her; I see how things had better go as they should than as I want them, and I come out of that time less willing to go on a spree, less anxious to see the boys, and more anxious to go on thinking than to do anything else."
The order of rotation demanded that the next speaker should be Mr. Alleman, and that gentleman remarked: