The Faith Healer Part 45

_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.