After that he prayed all around each one so fervently that those who had been hit the very worst cried aloud and said:"Amen!"You wouldn't think any one could do a thing like that;but I heard and saw my father do it.
When he arose the tears were running down his cheeks,and before him stood Leon.He was white as could be,but he spoke out loudly and clearly.
"Please forgive me,sir;I didn't intend to hurt your feelings.
Please every one forgive me.I didn't mean to offend any one.
It happened through hunting short verses.All the short ones seemed to be like that,and they made me think----"He got no farther.Father must have been afraid of what he might say next.He threw his arms around Leon's shoulders,drew him to the seat,and with the tears still rolling,he laughed as happily as you ever heard,and he cried:"`Sweeping through the Gates!'
All join in!"
You never heard such singing in your life.That was another wonderful thing.My father didn't know the notes.He couldn't sing;he said so himself.Neither could half the people there,yet all of them were singing at the tops of their voices,and Idon't believe the angels in Heaven could make grander music.My father was leading:
"These,these are they,who in the conflict dire----"You could tell Emanuel Ripley had been in the war from the way he roared:
"Boldly have stood amidst the hottest fire----"The Widow Fall soared above all of them on the next line;her man was there,and maybe she was lonely and would have been glad to go to him:
"Jesus now says,`Come up higher----'"
Then my little mother:
"Washed in the blood of the Lamb----"
Like thunder all of them rolled into the chorus:
"Sweepin,through the gates to the New Jerusalem----"You wouldn't have been left out of that company for anything in all this world,and nothing else ever could make you want to go so badly as to hear every one sing,straight from the heart,a grand old song like that.It is no right way to have to sit and keep still,and pay other people money to sing about Heaven to you.No matter if you can't sing by note,if your heart and soul are full,until they are running over,so that you are forced to sing as those people did,whether you can or not,you are sure to be straight on the way to the Gates.
Before three lines were finished my father was keeping time like a choirmaster,his face all beaming with shining light;mother was rocking on her toes like a wood robin on a twig at twilight,and at the end of the chorus she cried "Glory!"right out loud,and turned and started down the aisle,shaking hands with every one,singing as she went.When she reached Betsy Alton she held her hand and led her down the aisle straight toward Rachel Brown.
When Rachel saw them coming she hurried to meet them,and they shook hands and were glad to make up as any two people you ever saw.It must have been perfectly dreadful to see a woman every day for five years,and not to give her a pie,when you felt sure yours were better than she could make,or loan her a new pattern,or tell her first who had a baby,or was married,or dead,or anything like that.It was no wonder they felt glad.Mother came on,and as she passed me the verses were all finished and every one began talking and moving.Johnny Dover forgot his neck and shook hands too,and father pronounced the benediction.He always had to when the minister wasn't there,because he was ordained himself,and you didn't dare pronounce the benediction unless you were.
