brother, alone with his miserable
doubts. No letters, no message of remembered affection or present
good will, ever came from them. He had been unfaithful to his
religion: they had cast him off. For seven years he had walked and
laboured among the men and women here gathered in the midsummer dusk:
but the faces to which he had turned for comfort were faces of the
past--some dead, others far away.

So the preacher's voice came to him as one rending the sepulchre.
"Son of man, can these bones live?" Yes, the bones of Christ's
warrior beneath the slab--laid there to rest in utter weariness--were
stirring, putting forth strength and a voice that pierced his living
marrow. Ah, how it penetrated, unlocking old wells of tears!

He listened, letting his tears run. Only once did he withdraw his
eyes, and then for a moment they fell on John Romley, loitering too,
on the outskirts of the crowd by the churchyard gate and plainly in
two minds about interfering. Romley was curate of Epworth now,
delegate of an absentee sporting rector: and had in truth set this
ball rolling by denying John Wesley his pulpit. He had miscalculated
his flock; this stubborn English breed, so loyal in enmity, loving
the memory of a foe who had proved himself a man. He watched with a
loose-lipped sneer; too weak to conquer his own curiosity, far too
weak to assert his authority and attempt to clear the churchyard of
that "enthusiasm" which he had denounced in his most florid style
last Sunday, within the church.

John Whitelamb's gaze travelled back to the preacher. Up to this he
had heard the voice only, and the dead man in his grave below
speaking through that voice. Now he listened to the words. If the
dead man spoke through them, what a change had death wrought--what
wisdom had he found in the dust that equals all! What had become of
the old confident righteousness, the old pride of intellect?
They were stripped and flung aside as filthy rags. "Apart from faith
we do not count. We _are_ redeemed: we _are_ saved. Christ has made
with us no bargain at all except to believe that the bargain is
concluded. What are we at the best that He should make distinctions
between us? We are all sinners and our infinitesimal grades of sin
sunk in His magnificent mercy. Only acknowledge your sin: only admit
the mercy; and you are healed, pardoned, made joint heirs with
Christ--not in a fair way to be healed, not going to be pardoned in
some futu