Part 35 (1/2)
The tears were rolling down the weak, young face. The flaccid mouth quivered; the neck was bowed.
”All this, sir,” said the young man--”all this is true.”
”A broken and contrite heart,” the Teacher answered, ”are not despised of G.o.d. By his great mercy I have been sent to you to save you. Restore the money you have stolen, but do far more. Turn from darkness; seek light. Come to Jesus Christ. Boy, you have heard of what is known as the 'Great Refusal'; you know how the young man with great possessions could not, and would not, give them up to follow the Son of G.o.d? But you deny Jesus for a pot of beer! You give up your hope of eternal life to come and the peace of G.o.d in this wicked world for nothing--nothing at all?
Now come with me to my house in Bloomsbury, my house of G.o.dly men. There you shall pray and repent, and from there you shall go home cleansed and purged of your sin, filled with the Holy Spirit, ready and anxious to lead a new life, walking from henceforth in Christ Jesus.”
They went out of the place together. The boy never cast a backward glance at his inamorata of a few minutes ago. He followed the Teacher in blind obedience. He was as one stunned. They came into the big old-fas.h.i.+oned square where was the house which Sir Thomas Ducaine had given to Joseph and his brethren. The windows were all lighted up, and there was a small crowd lingering in front of the door.
”They are all praying within,” Joseph said. ”To-morrow we are to go down into the worst places of the East End. A party of great people are coming with us. We have persuaded them to come, in order that they may see for themselves what these parts of London really are like.”
He spoke quietly, and in a purely conversational tone, as if to an equal. He knew well what the poor lad who walked so humbly by his side was suffering. He knew of the remorse and shame, but also of the hope, which were pouring into the young man's heart. And he knew also that all this was but a preparation for what was to come--that there must, indeed, be a final agony of surrender, an absolute and utter ”giving-in”
to Jesus.
So, as they walked across the square, he tried to calm his captive's nerves by a quiet recital of the great and hopeful things that they were to do on the morrow.
Yet even to Joseph it was not then given to know what things the morrow would bring forth.
CHAPTER XX
MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH
The big house was very plainly furnished. What was absolutely necessary had been put into it, but that was all. Sir Thomas Ducaine had been astounded at the simplicity of the arrangements. The wealthy young man, accustomed as he was to every luxury and amenity of life that riches bring, was most anxious to make the place more comfortable.
”My dear fellow,” he said to Joseph, ”you can't possibly live like this.
Why, it's barer than a work-house! You must really let me send you some things in.”
But the baronet had not in the least succeeded in altering the Teacher's determination.
”The Lord's work is to be done,” Joseph had answered. ”We are here to do it, and our thoughts are set on other matters. We have no need of these things.”
”But you don't think comfort or luxury, I suppose you would call it, wrong?”
”Certainly not, if a man has earned it, is robbing n.o.body in acquiring it, and finds personal enjoyment in it. Christ sat at the rich man's feast. He took the gift of the precious ointment. But for us such things are unnecessary.”
So the house, now more famous than perhaps any house in London, was a veritable hermit's cell in its appointments. There, however, the resemblance ceased entirely. The place hummed with varied activities. It was the centre of the many organizations that were springing into being under Joseph's direction; activities made possible by Sir Thomas Ducaine's magnificent gifts and the stream of outside donations that had followed in their wake.
Joseph and his young companion pa.s.sed through the little crowd of loiterers and curious people that nearly always stood before the door of the mysterious house where the Teacher was now known to reside. There was a stir and movement as he came among them, nudgings of elbows, a universal pressure forward, whispers and remarks below the voice: ”That's him!” ”There's Joseph himself!”
Joseph pa.s.sed through the crowd without taking any notice of it. On the doorstep he paused and turned as if to speak. The people--there may have been thirty or forty of them--pressed forward in a circle of eager faces. On the outskirts of the group there was a woman, dressed in black and past the middle-age. She seemed to hang back, as if reluctant, or too timid, to approach.
Joseph's eye fell upon her. Then he took a latchkey from his pocket and gave it to the young man.
”Open the door,” he said, ”and go into the house. Go into the room on the right-hand side of the hall, and I will meet you there.”
The young man did as he was bidden, and disappeared.
Then Joseph spoke.