"Come?" - the sick man repeated.
"With your heart - to his feet. Give yourself to Him. He is here, though you do not see Him."
The man shut his eyes, with a weary sort of expression overspreading his features; and remained silent. After a little while he said slowly -
"I think - I have heard - such things - once. It is a great while ago. I don't think I know - what it means."
Yet the face looked weary and worn; and for me, I stood beside him and my tears dripped like a summer shower. Like the first of the shower, as somebody says; the pressure at my heart was too great to let them flow. O life, and death! O message of mercy, and deaf ears! O open door of salvation, and feet that stumble at the threshold! After a time his eyes opened.
"What are you doing there?" he said vaguely.
"I am praying for you, dear friend."
"Praying?" said he. "Pray so that I can hear you."
I was well startled at this. I had prayed with papa; with no other, and before no other, in all my life. And here were rows of beds on all sides of me, wide-awake careless eyes in some of their occupants; nurses and attendants moving about; no privacy; no absolute stillness. I thought I could not; then I knew I must; and then all other things faded into insignificance before the work Jesus came to do and had given me to help. I knelt down, not without hands and face growing cold in the effort; but as soon as I was once fairly speaking to my Lord, I ceased to think or care who else was listening to me. There was a deep stillness around; I knew that; the attendants paused in their movements, and words and work I think were suspended during the few minutes when I was on my knees. When I got up, the sick man's eyes were closed. I sat down with my face in my hands, feeling as if I had received a great wrench; but presently Miss Yates came with a whispered request that I would do something that was required just then for somebody. Work set me all right very soon. But when after a while I came round to Preston again, I found him in a rage.
"What has come over you?" he said, looking at me with a complication of frowns. I was at a loss for the reason, and requested him to explain himself.