The Argosy — page 271: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

252 “ Beside all Waters.” He stood quite still for a moment as the last notes of the hymn died away, and in that moment his searching eyes had taken in the whole scene. The group of children just below him, the rugged farmers with their buxom wives, the rough labourers, the village shopkeepers with their more fashionable sons and daughters, the old men and women from the alms-houses, the school-children in the gallery, and the sprinkling of the ‘‘ gentry ” come on purpose to hear him. Beyond, through the open doors, he caught a glimpse of waving trees and a glimmer of gold from the corn-fields, the faint twitter of birds was in the air and the glow of the setting sun was over all. In that brief moment it framed itself in his mind like a picture, and became a part of an after-memory. ‘Then he raised his voice and said, in penetrating accents that rang through the church, rousing the dullest to attention and lingering for long in the minds of some of his hearers : ‘“ And as JESUS passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” It had been part of his morning reading, and the passage had struck him as likely, from its narrative form, to attract the attention of his congregation. A startled thrill seemed to run through the people, and the little bent head just below the pulpit was raised, and a pair of soft brown eyes were turned slowly towards him. There was a profound silence, and: the child sat as if spell-bound while the preacher sketched for them in words made vivid by his strong and vivid faith, the strange dark world in which that blind man moved—never lighted by sun or star; always the spirit sitting alone in its shadowed chamber unable even to picture what the outside world was like. The dawning of day over the distant hills; the sunbeams dancing on the wavelets of that pool of Siloam; the glories of the Eastern night, when countless burning stars hung over the stately city of Jerusalem ; the wonders of the mighty Ttemple— all these were as a sealed book to him. ‘The people thronging to and fro known only by a sense of presence and of touch. Nay, even those who loved him best: the mother who bore him, and who had doubtless wept bitter tears for him: recognised only as a voice! And then he pictured the sudden change of light for darkness, as sudden as the change from death to life, when the waters of Siloam touched those sightless orbs, and they opened to the dazzle and brightness of the sunlight, the shifting multitude of countless forms ; and, distinct amidst them all, more glorious than any ray of sun to him, the grave kind eyes of Jesus Christ looking down with such unspeakable love upon His finished work. Ah! was it not almost worth while to have been born blind, for in the first moment of sight his soul looked out of the long darkened windows, and saw the face of Him who was the Light of the World! Clearly and tellingly the speaker dwelt upon the story, with its Gomichbooks.com