Then the minister bowed his pale face upon his hands; but he did not answer a word.
“There is one thing still I want to say,” said Daniel. “I’ve made my will, and left all I had to Jessica; but I don’t know where she’ll find a home. If you’d look out for her--”
“Jessica shall come home to me,” interrupted the minister, laying his hand upon hers and Daniel’s and clasping them both warmly.
“I’m a Christian man,” whispered Daniel. “I know that I love God, and that he has made me something like himself. There’s a verse about it in the Bible.”
“‘Beloved,’” said the minister, “‘now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.’”
There was no stammering of the minister’s speech as he pronounced these words, and his face grew bright, as did the face of the dying man. Daniel’s mind wandered a little, and he groped about, as in the dark, for the Bible, which lay upon the bed; and he murmured,
“It’s time to take up the books, for the congregation is waiting, and the minister is ready. I will take them up to heaven.”
He spoke no more; but the Bible after a while fell from his hand, and Jessica and the minister, looking upon his face, saw that in heaven he was beholding the face of the Father.
It proved true that the minister could never again preach a sermon such as in former times, when the people listened with strained attention, and he was to them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and playeth well on an instrument; but they heard his words and did them not. Yet he was a man of calmer happiness than before; and in his quiet country home, where sometimes of a Sunday he mounted the pulpit-steps of a little chapel, and taught a simple congregation simple truths, he drew nearer day by day in spirit to the great congregation who were waiting for him, and before whom his lips should never more be silenced.
Spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained as they appear in the original publication, including the use of “wont” for “won’t” in “Jessica’s First Prayer”, except as follows:
Page 17 ‘You make good coffee _changed to_ “You make good coffee