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Both sentiments fused into keener hatred of Toyner; but she remembered yes, even then she remembered quite clearly and distinctly that if the worst came to the worst and she could save her father in no other way, she had one weapon in reserve, one in which she had perfect faith.
When one drops one's plummet into life anywhere it falls the whole length of the line we give it. The man who can give his plummet the longest line is he who realises most surely that it has not touched the bottom. Bart Toyner betook himself to prayer.
The young preacher believed in such miracles, and because he believed he saw them often. Toyner trembled and hoped, and at length he too believed. He believed that as long as he willingly obeyed God his old habits would not triumph over him.
Now he no longer believed himself in the ways of exclusive thought and practices in which the best men he knew were walking. The only religious thinkers with whom he had come in contact gave up a large class of human activities and the majority of human souls to the almost exclusive dominion of the devil. As far as Toyner knew he was alone in the world with his new idea.
At length they were both aware that the level light of the sun was in the room. Ann sat up, looking at the door intently. Then her eyes moved as if following some one across the room. "What is it?" asked Toyner.
Before Toyner realised the situation he found himself in consultation with the new-comer as to the best means of seeking Markham. Did the perfect righteousness require that he should betray Ann's confidence and state that Markham was in hiding somewhere within reach? Bart looked the question for a moment in the face, and trembled before it.
All that the preacher said was wise and strong, and the only reason he failed to convince was that Toyner felt that the thought in which his own storm-tossed soul had anchored was a little wiser and stronger only a little, for there was not a great difference between them, after all.
Within her own heart an unexpressed terror grew stronger and stronger. It was founded upon the sense of personal responsibility. She alone knew the secret mission upon which Toyner had left; she alone knew of the glimpse of her father which she had caught the night before, and she doubted now whether she had seen a spirit or visible man.
The austere demand of law and the service of God were very near together in his mind; nor are they in any strong mind ever separated except in parable. Bart Toyner, who had for years appeared so weak and witless, possessed in reality that fine quality of brain and heart which is so often a prey to the temptation of intoxicants.
At the end of the sermon there was a great call made upon all who desired to give up their sins and to walk in God's strength and righteousness, to go forward and kneel in token of their penitence and pray for the grace which they would assuredly receive. This public penance was a very little thing, like the dipping in Jordan. It did not seem little to Toyner.
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