In His Steps chapter Twenty-two (part3) So Felicia turned into her mother’s room, as she went up the great staircase and down the upper hall. The light was burning there, and the servant who always waited on Mrs. Sterling was beckoning Felicia to come in. “Tell Clara to go out,” exclaimed Mrs. Sterling as Felicia came up to the bed. Felicia was surprised, but she did as her mother bade her, and then inquired how she was feeling. “Felicia,” said her mother, “can you pray?” The question was so unlike any her mother had ever asked before that she was startled. But she answered: “Why, yes, mother. Why do you ask such a question?” “Felicia, I am frightened. Your father—I have had such strange fears about him all day. Something is wrong with him. I want you to pray—.” “Now, here, mother?” “Yes. Pray, Felicia.” Felicia reached out her hand and took her mother’s. It was trembling. Mrs. Sterling had never shown such tenderness for her younger daughter, and her strange demand now was the first real sign of any confidence in Felicia’s character. The girl kneeled, still holding her mother’s trembling hand, and prayed. It is doubtful if she had ever prayed aloud before. She must have said in her prayer the words that her mother needed, for when it was silent in the room the invalid was weeping softly and her nervous tension was over. Felicia stayed some time. When she was assured that her mother would not need her any longer she rose to go. “Good night, mother. You must let Clara call me if you feel badly in the night.” “I feel better now.” Then as Felicia was moving away, Mrs. Sterling said: “Won’t you kiss me, Felicia?” Felicia went back and bent over her mother. The kiss was almost as strange to her as the prayer had been. When Felicia went out of the room her cheeks were wet with tears. She had not often cried since she was a little child. Sunday morning at the Sterling mansion was generally very quiet. The girls usually went to church at eleven o’clock service. Mr. Sterling was not a member but a heavy contributor, and he generally went to church in the morning. This time he did not come down to breakfast, and finally sent word by a servant that he did not feel well enough to go out. So Rose and Felicia drove up to the door of the Nazareth Avenue Church and entered the family pew alone. When Dr. Bruce walked out of the room at the rear of the platform and went up to the pulpit to open the Bible as his custom was, those who knew him best did not detect anything unusual in his manner or his expression. He proceeded with the service as usual. He was calm and his voice was steady and firm. His prayer was the first intimation the people had of anything new or strange in the service. It is safe to say that the Nazareth Avenue Church had not heard Dr. Bruce offer such a prayer before during the twelve years he had been pastor there. How would a minister be likely to pray who had come out of a revolution in Christian feeling that had completely changed his definition of what was meant by following Jesus? No one in Nazareth Avenue Church had any idea that the Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. D., the dignified, cultured, refined Doctor of Divinity, had within a few days been crying like a little child on his knees, asking for strength and courage and Christlikeness to speak his Sunday message; and yet the prayer was an unconscious involuntary disclosure of his soul’s experience such as the Nazareth Avenue people had seldom heard, and never before from that pulpit. In the hush that succeeded the prayer a distinct wave of spiritual power moved over the congregation. The most careless persons in the church felt it. Felicia, whose sensitive religious nature responded swiftly to every touch of emotion, quivered under the passing of that supernatural pressure, and when she lifted her head and looked up at the minister there was a look in her eyes that announced her intense, eager anticipation of the scene that was to follow. And she was not alone in her attitude. There was something in the prayer and the result of it that stirred many and many a disciple in that church. All over the house men and women leaned forward, and when Dr. Bruce began to speak of his visit to Raymond, in the opening sentence of his address which this morning preceded his sermon, there was an answering response in the people that came back to him as he spoke, and thrilled him with the hope of a spiritual baptism such as he had never during all his ministry experienced.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:28:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015