Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/144

144THE HALLIG.

impulse which had driven her out of the current of her
ordinary life.
  The physician who had come to the hallig on God-
ber's account, had, at the request of the pastor, visited
the poor widow, although her illness was thought by no
means serious. How startled was Hold, when the doc-
tor, after his visit, informed him that medical aid was
here too late, and that the aged patient was rapidly ap-
proaching her final release. Must Maria then stand
completely orphaned, alone in her sorrow ? Must her
hard-earned faith in the guidance of her Heavenly
Father receive a new shock ? The pastor endeavored
to prepare her as gently as possible for the loss that
was threatening her. To his astonishment, she received
almost with indifference, the gradual communication of
the physician's opinion. Could any thing be too hard
for her, after the sorrow through which she had already
passed ? She seemed almost ready to challenge Heaven
to smite her yet more heavily. Only when Hold made
her observe how little such submission deserved the
name, how much she was sinning by a determination
not to feel the grief which her Heavenly Father was
again preparing for her, when he with some severity
called this indifference unchristian, then she burst into
tears and ashed sorrowfully,
  "What would you have me to do ?"
  "I would have an open soul," answered Hold, "where
the warm beams of Divine mercy, which also mani-
fest themselves in affliction, may find a fruitful soil, no
closed, icy heart, over which the tempest may pass and
leave it untouched. I would have childlike obedience,
not obstinate endurance. I would have life, not death.