The Faith Healer - LightNovelsOnl.com
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_Mrs. Beeler rises and goes to meet Rhoda, entering from the porch._
RHODA.
Aunt Mary! You are walking again!
MRS. BEELER.
He told me to arise, and once more my dead limbs heard.
RHODA.
G.o.d in His mercy be thanked!
MRS. BEELER.
I rose without knowing what I did. It was as if a wind lifted me.
RHODA.
Yes, yes. For good, this time!
MRS. BEELER.
So different from yesterday. I was still weak then, and my limbs were heavy. Now I feel as if wings were on my shoulders.
_She looks toward the outer door, and listens to the singing, now risen to a more joyful strain._
I must go out to them.
_She turns to Michaelis._
Say that I may go out, and give them the good tidings of great joy.
MICHAELIS.
May the Lord be with you as you go!
_To Rhoda, who starts to help her aunt._
Alone!
MRS. BEELER.
Yes, alone. I want to go alone.
_She takes a lily from the vase, and lifting it above her head, goes out through the porch, which is now flooded with suns.h.i.+ne. As she goes out she says:_
The Easter sun has risen, with healing in its wings!
_She crosses the porch and disappears._
RHODA.
I felt something dragging me back. It was Aunt Mary's spirit.
MICHAELIS.
No, it was mine.
RHODA.
Yours?
MICHAELIS.
My spirit, crying to you that I was delivered.
RHODA.
I delivered you. That is enough happiness for one life.
MICHAELIS.
You delivered me, yes. But not as you dream. Yesterday when the mult.i.tude began to gather, the thing I had been waiting for all my life was there, and I--because of you--I was not ready. In that blind hour my life sank in ruin.--I had thought love denied to such as had my work to do, and in the darkness of that thought disaster overwhelmed me.--I have come to know that G.o.d does not deny love to any of his children, but gives it as a beautiful and simple gift to them all.--Upon each head be the use that is made of it!
RHODA.
It is not I--who--harm you?
MICHAELIS.
It is you who bless me, and give me back the strength that I had lost.
RHODA.
I?
MICHAELIS.
A little while ago you told me your life's bitter story. I tasted your struggle, went down with you into the depths of your anguish, and in those depths,--the miracle! Behold, once more the stars looked down upon me from their places, and I stood wondering as a child wonders.
Out of those depths arose new-born happiness and new-risen hope. For in those star-lit depths of pain and grief, I had found at last true love.
You needed me. You needed all the powers I had thrown away for your sake. You needed what the whole world needs--healing, healing, and as I rose to meet that need, the power that I had lost poured back into my soul.
RHODA.
Oh, if I thought that could be!
MICHAELIS.
