And we are strong again.”
I looked up to the brow of the hill whereon this city is built, and my mind wuz all wrought up thinkin’ of how the Christ stood up in the synagogue and told for the first time of his mission in these incomparable words so dear to-day to all true ministers and lovers of God’s words, and all earnest reformers from that day down:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 294 captive, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
Oh, what a divine mission! not to the great and lofty and happy, but to the poor, the broken-hearted, the bruised and the blind. How his heart yearned over them even as it duz to-day. And how did the world receive it? Just as Truth is received to-day, anon or oftener; they thrust Him out of the synagogue, dragged Him to the brow of this very hill that they might cast Him off. But we read that He passed through the midst of them and went his way, just as Truth will and must. It can’t be slain by its opposers; though they may turn it out of their high places by force, it will appear to ’em agin as an accuser.
But oh, what feelin’s I felt as I looked on that very hill, the very ground where He passed through their midst unharmed! I had a great number of emotions, and I guess Josiah did, although his wuz softened down some and dissipated by hunger, and Tommy, dear little lamb! he too wuz hungry, so we all went to a little tarven where we got some food, not over good, but better than nothin’.
The roads all about Nazareth and Jerusalem are very stony and rocky, so we can see how hard it wuz, in a physical sense, for our Lord to perform the journeys He did, for they wuz almost always on foot.
Well, that evenin’ at the tarven in Jerusalem, Miss Meechim and Dorothy and I wuz in the settin’ room, and Dorothy set down to the little piano and played and sung some real sweet pieces, and several of the English people who had come on the steamer with us gathered round her to hear the music, and amongst them wuz two young gentlemen we had got acquainted with––real bright, handsome young chaps they wuz––and they looked dretful admirin’ at Dorothy, and I didn’t wonder at it, for she looked as pretty as a new-blown rose, and her voice had the sweetness and freshness of a June mornin’ in it, when the air is full and runnin’ over with the song of bird and bee, and the soft murmur of the southern 295 breeze amongst the dewy flowers. She wuz singin’ old Scottish and English ballads, and more than one eye wuz wet as she sang about “Auld Joe Nicholson’s Bonnie Nannie,” and “I’m Wearin’ Away, Jean,” and the dear old “Annie Laurie.”
Miss Meechim looked worried and anxious, and sez she: “Oh, how I do wish Robert Strong wuz here. Oh, dear! what a trial it is to keep young folks apart.”
And I sez: “What makes you try to? It is jest as nateral for ’em to like each other’s company as it is for bluebirds and robins to fly round together in the spring of the year, and no more hurt in it, as I can see.”
Sez she impressively: “Haven’t I told you, Josiah Allen’s wife, my wearing anxiety, my haunting fear that in spite of all my efforts and labors Dorothy will marry some one in spite of me? You know how invincibly opposed I am to matrimony. And you can see for yourself just how much admiration she gits everywhere, and one of those young men,” sez she, frowning darkly on a handsome young Englishman, “I am sure is in earnest. See the expression of his face––it is simply worship. He would throw himself on his knees in front of her this minute if there were not so many round. Oh, why don’t Robert come and protect her?”