Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/57

 agitation he was thrown into by the sacred office … or perhaps the sudden change from the fresh, frosty air to the close sick room, was the cause,… his brain refused to put a single sentence together. A curious dizziness came over him, his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth, and he felt a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Then all at once a verse, an evening hymn, which his mother had taught him as a child, flashed across his mind. He had not thought of it for many years, now it came to him like an angel from heaven. He had a sensation as if some one were standing at his side, and taking him by the hand. Almost like listening to a stranger, he heard himself speaking fervent and heartfelt words, about the grace of God, the all-goodness of God, and the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind.

Even the well-known sentences of the ritual became new and living in his mouth; and when at last he laid his hand on the girl's forehead to give the absolution, all his trembling soul was penetrated with the feeling that at this moment God's strengthening spirit was being imparted through him.