The Black Forge Mills

by William P. Chipman

He turned and looked gravely at his wife, who had entered in time to hear his complaint, and who now looked up, half amused and half seriously, into his face.

"The rebuke was needed, Mary," he at last said, "and may the dear Master forgive my want of faith." Then drawing her down on the lounge beside him, he poured into her sympathizing ears the whole story of his dejectedness. She listened attentively until he had finished, and then, with mirth dancing in her eyes, though her words were grave enough, repeated almost his own utterances to one of his members the evening before. With his own gesture and emphasis, she pointed out the success of the mission, the great changes in Ray Branford, and other marked evidences of God's blessing upon the home church, and closed with the words, "Physician, heal thyself."

He heard her through without a comment; then, dropping on his knees, he drew her down beside him, and begged God's forgiveness for his want of courage and faith, for his desire to have things his own, and not God's way, and thanked him for the true helper and sympathizer he had given him in his wife. He prayed that there might be given to them both fuller grace, greater power, and more submissive wills to toil on God's time and in God's way for the extension of his kingdom on the earth. He arose from his knees, saying, "There, Mary, I will go back to my work, and even if I have but one out to-night besides myself, they shall have the best spiritual food I can give them."

The storm increased rather than diminished in violence as night came on, and when Mr. Carleton and his wife entered the church, they found that the sexton had lighted and heated only the small room. But this was large enough to hold the bare dozen who had braved the storm for that hour of prayer. Two of the deacons and their wives, three young ladies who had recently joined the church, the sexton and his wife, with Mr. and Mrs. Carleton made eleven. Who was the twelfth? Will you believe it? It was Ray Branford. Never before had he attended a Friday night prayer meeting at the First Church; and now to be out in all that storm! It seemed easy enough to account for it, when he explained to Mr. Carleton, as he shook hands with him, that a neighbor had been taken suddenly sick and he had come up for the doctor. The doctor wasn't at home, and wouldn't be for an hour; and as he was going to ride back with him to the Forge, he thought he might as well come in to the prayer meeting and wait there, as over at the doctor's office. This was the human explanation of it; but up there in heaven they would have told you it was a providence of God.

Mr. Carleton was very informal in that service. He took his chair right down near his little audience, and opening his Bible he read a few verses from the forty-third chapter of Isaiah, and then called on Deacon Blake to pray. This good brother was one of those who are so rare, who know how to come directly to God and tell him just what they need. When he had done that, he stopped. It was a very brief prayer, almost as brief as that of Bartimeus when he asked the Lord for sight; but all of that little company felt they had been lifted right into God's presence, and that he knew, and would give them just what they needed most. Then they sang a familiar hymn, after which Mr. Carleton, still sitting in his chair, gave them a brief talk.

"There is one verse here in this passage I have read," he remarked, "that I want you all to notice, 'Fear not: for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name: thou art mine.' This, of course, applies first to God's chosen people Israel; but secondly, to the spiritual Israel, and thus to each child of God. Every one of us here to-night, if he belongs to Christ, can claim the words.

"The child of God is admonished to fear not—to let nothing trouble him—neither life's trials nor death itself. He of all men should have no cause for alarm. The reason for this is threefold. God has redeemed him; has called him by name; has declared, 'Thou art mine.' This is not a mere repetition of thought. There is a gradation and a climax. To be called by name is more than mere redemption; to have it declared that 'thou art God's is more than the calling by name. There are three steps, and they are progressive—first, redemption, then intimacy, and last, identity; for Christ and his disciple are one."

Then briefly, but pointedly, Mr. Carleton proceeded to illustrate the three steps—redemption through Christ, intimacy with Christ, and identity with him. He closed by quoting the words: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne," and added, "When the disciple has placed himself in complete submission to the will of God, as did our blessed Master, then is this last stage reached—namely, his complete identification with his Lord."

From the moment that Mr. Carleton read the Scripture lesson Ray Branford seemed unusually agitated, and before he had finished his remarks great tears were flowing down the boy's cheeks. When, however, he at the close of the meeting hastened to the lad's side with the anxious inquiry: "What is it, Ray? Can I help you?" the boy hastily brushed away his tears, and brusquely replied: "Those were the words my mother repeated when dying." Then he turned, and fled out into the storm and darkness.

This, then, was the cause for his great agitation, and with a shade of disappointment apparent on his face, Mr. Carleton turned around to speak with Deacon Blake.