None know what
an hour may bring forth. In a single night my children, hath this been
done. They whose voices were heard in my halls are now speechless and they
who so lately rejoiced are sorrowing. Yet hath this seeming evil been
ordered that good may come thereof. We are dwellers in a wild and distant
land," he continued, insensibly permitting his thoughts to incline towards
the more mournful details of their affliction; "our earthly home is afar
off. Hither have we been led by the flaming pillar of truth, and yet the
malice of the persecuters hath not forgotten to follow. One houseless, and
sought like the hunted deer, is again driven to flee. We have the canopy
of the stars for a roof; none may tarry longer to worship, secretly,
within our walls. But the path of the faithful, though full of thorns,
leadeth to quiet, and the final rest of the just man can never know alarm.
He that hath borne hunger, and thirst, and the pains of the flesh, for the
sake of truth, knoweth how to be satisfied; nor will the hours of bodily
suffering be accounted weary to him whose goal is the peace of the
righteous.
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