Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/270

266 failed us yet, and we were greatly comforted. Charles read that beautiful and pathetic story of the Master kneeling alone in Gethsemane, and it cheered us.”

Farther on she came to another entry which arrested her attention.

“We were discussing to-day the advisability of giving up our work here, as Tom and Kate are the only Indians who are now with us. We were undecided what to do, whether to go to some other place or stay here, when a remarkable thing happened. My husband was seated at his table with his Bible open before him. Almost unconsciously he kept turning the pages as we talked, and when at last we were silent for a few minutes, each knowing that the time of decision had finally arrived, Charles suddenly bent forward, gave a slight exclamation of astonishment, and fixed his eyes intently upon the page open before him. I never saw such an expression of awe upon his face. He seemed like a man transfigured, and his eyes shone with a wonderful light. He then began to read in a low impressive voice from Ezekiel, ‘And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.’ So overwhelmed was Charles by these words, that he rose to his feet and paced rapidly up and down the room. ‘The Gap, The Gap,’ he repeated, ‘I must stand in the gap, Martha. The Lord needs me here. This is The Gap, the place where I must remain. Wonderful, isn’t it, that I should be led to that passage? The Lord shall not want for a man to stand in The Gap here in the north, so long as I live.’ He urged me to go home to England, but I would not listen to such an idea. My place is by the side of my dear husband, for the Lord sometimes