Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/87

87

CONSOLATION.

voice, "Here is Thine handmaid ! Thy will be done."
She then in a firm tone gave her mother the promise
quietly and patiently to leave every thing in the hands
of the Lord, to lire henceforth only for her, and be the
joy of her old age.
  As the pastor withdrew, Maria and her mother
thanked him for his consolation, only by their look, not
with words. They were accustomed to regard the min-
ister of the hallig as a sympathizing friend in such
hours, and to experience in themselves the blessings of
his spiritual office. The mother, making some excuse
for leaving Maria within, followed the pastor to the
door, as he turned away, and begged him, when a good
opportunity should offer, to speak a serious word or two
to Godber which indeed he had already resolved to do.
  On his way home. Hold asked himself why the point-
ing to Christ had so evidently wrought upon the heart
of the afflicted girl. He believed that this tranquiliz-
ing influence did not proceed merely from a contempla-
tion of God which lifts us into a higher sphere and
makes the joys and sorrows of earth appear only shad-
ows and dreams, but that the Prince of Peace, the
Conqueror of this world must show Himself to us with
His cross and crown of thorns.
  Man must see face to face ; and this is true not only
of him who rejects faith as a disparagement to reason,
but of him, too, who has kept a child-like, obedient
heart for the word of the eternal Father. This longing
for sight is a necessity of our weak mortal nature which
requires something that addresses itself to the senses,
even when it is most earnestly striving to elevate itself
above their domain ; as the eagle which soars toward