He had expected to find them
as harmonious and as united as when he left. He trod the precious soil
and found all external things glowing in beauty. He mounted the hill,
and there came two beautiful white doves flying close to him as he
walked on, circling around and around his head and seeming to rejoice
in his coming. He regarded it as a symbol of the unity and peace that
were with us, as well as a token of welcome.
But when he came to talk with the members, all was doubt, all was
distrust. What could it mean? It filled his heart with sad forebodings!
Why could we not be as before? Why doubt? why distrust? why not push
on? Certainly there would be a way opened for us! It could not be that
the years of devotion to one another and to this just cause and just
life could end thus! And in pleading tones born out of the depths of
his heart, and living sentences to which I can do no manner of justice,
he waxed eloquent, and all could not but be touched and moved with his
words.
How beautiful it is in looking back to this time, when coming events
were casting their sad shadows before them, to think that no one took
the opposite side, and that none among all the number argued before us
that we had met with a miserable failure; that no one was ready with a
rude word to break the bonds of friendship and to use his eloquence to
destroy our habit of life, our trust in one another, our faith in God
and the eternal justice of His providence, or to hasten in any way the
disruption of the institution; and that in those trying hours the
strong ties of friendship, love and daily communion were uppermost.
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