I am embarking. Coming to see you. Your loving father."

"Is it really so, Palko?"

"It is."

"Oh, my father, my father! He is coming to us. He still loves and
forgives. Palko, pray for me, for something will happen to me,"
bitterly crying, the lady fell on her knees.

Palko prayed, "Thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that her father is coming, that
he has forgiven her, though he is still far away, yet Thou art here.
If she will just ask Thee, Thou wilt forgive her, because Thou dost
love her so much, I know. Amen."

Life and death is in the power of the tongue. In the words of Palko
there was life. The lady believed that the Good Shepherd was really
there, that He came to meet her. Once she had run away from Him; today
she did not want to run away. Today she confessed her transgressions
to Him. She knew well that it was against Him she had sinned most,
that she had gone from Him, to her own destruction. She had despised
Him when He had stretched out His pierced hands to her, though they
had been nailed on the cross for her sake. She had not wanted to sing
to His honor and glory; and had hated the songs of the Lamb. She had
wanted to sing for the people and had--but they had repaid her by
breaking her heart. But He, whom she despised, had followed her here.
She had not wanted to hear famous preachers; but He had sent a
child along her path that he might lead her to the feet of the Good
Shepherd. The Good Shepherd did not despise her; at last He had
received her. Palko did not understand what the lady prayed, for she
prayed in English, but he understood the tone. The Lord Jesus was
with her and she knew it and talked with Him. Palko rose silently and
respectfully, and left the place which now belonged to the lady and
the Good Shepherd.

CHAPTER TEN

"Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what the day may
bring forth," says the Word of God, and that truly. Even at the
sheepfolds they did not dream what the next day would bring to them,
the serious illness of Ondrejko's mother. The doctor, very much
worried, said that the unexpected message about the arrival of her
beloved father, whom she had not seen for years, shocked her so much,
that she fell into a nervous illness, which he had wanted to prevent
by bringing her here to the mountains. Only Palko and Bacha Filina
knew that there was something more which overcame her. They spoke
about it only between themselves and prayed for the lady very much.
She