The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lost Word, by Henry Van Dyke

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Title: The Lost Word
A Christmas Legend of Long Ago

Author: Henry Van Dyke

Posting Date: July 26, 2009 [EBook #4384]
Release Date: August, 2003
First Posted: January 20, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST WORD ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines.

THE LOST WORD

A Christmas Legend of Long Ago

By

HENRY VAN DYKE

New York

MDCCCXCVIII

"DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND HAMILTON W. MABIE"

CONTENTS

I THE POVERTY OF HERMAS
II A CHRISTMAS LOSS
III PARTING, BUT NO FAREWELL
IV LOVE IN SEARCH OF A WORD
V RICHES WITHOUT REST
VI GREAT FEAR AND RECOVERED JOY

I

THE POVERTY OF HERMAS

"COME down, Hermas, come down! The night is past. It is time to be
stirring. Christ is born to-day. Peace be with you in His name. Make
haste and come down!"

A little group of young men were standing in a street of Antioch, in
the dusk of early morning, fifteen hundred years ago. It was a class
of candidates who had nearly finished their two years of training
for the Christian church. They had come to call their fellow-student
Hermas from his lodging.

Their voices rang out cheerily through the cool air. They were full
of that glad sense of life which the young feel when they awake and
come to rouse one who is still sleeping. There was a note of
friendly triumph in their call, as if they were exulting
unconsciously in having begun the adventure of the new day before
their comrade.

But Hermas was not asleep. He had been waking for hours, and the
dark walls of his narrow lodging had been a prison to his restless
heart. A nameless sorrow and discontent had fallen upon him, and he
could find no escape from the heaviness of his own thoughts.

There is a sadness of youth into which the old cannot enter. It
seems to them unreal and causeless. But it is even more bitter and
burdensome than the sadness of age. There is a sting of resentment
in it, a fever of angry surprise that the world should so soon be a
disappointment, and life so early t