FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96  
97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   >>   >|  
igh all day long. Are you certain sure you've never been a monk?" "Very certain, friend," said Gerhardt, smiling. "Is not the existence of Agnes answer enough to that?" "Oh, but you might have run away," said Isel, whose convictions on most subjects were of rather a hazy order. "There are monks that do, and priests too: or if they don't forsake their Order, they don't behave like it. Why, just look at Reinbald the Chaplain--who'd ever take him for a priest, with his long curls and his silken robes, and ruffling up his hair to hide the tonsure?" "Ay, there are men who are ashamed of nothing so much as of the cross which their Master bore for them," admitted Gerhardt sorrowfully. "And at times it looks as if the lighter the cross be, the less ready they are to carry it. There be who would face a drawn sword more willingly than a scornful laugh." "Well, we none of us like to be laughed at." "True. But he who denies his faith through the mockery of Herod's soldiers, how shall he bear the scourging in Pilate's hall?" "Well, I'm none so fond of neither of 'em," said Isel, taking down a ham. "It is only women who can't stand being touched," commented Haimet rather disdainfully. "But you are out there, Gerard: it is a disgrace to be laughed at, and disgrace is ever worse to a true man than pain." "Why should it be disgrace, if I am in the right?" answered Gerhardt. "If I do evil, and refuse to own it, that is disgrace, if you will; but if I do well, or speak truth, and stand by it, what cause have I to be ashamed?" "But if men believe that you have done ill, is that no disgrace?" "If they believe it on false witness, the disgrace is equally false. `Blessed are ye, when men shall persecute you, and shall say all evil against you, lying, for My sake.' Those are His words who bore all shame for us." "They sha'n't say it of me, unless they smart for it!" cried Haimet hotly. "Then wilt thou not be a true follower of the Lamb of God, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, but committed Himself unto Him that judgeth righteously." "Saints be with you!" said Anania, lifting the latch, and intercepting a response from Haimet which might have been somewhat incisive. "I declare, I'm just killed with the heat!" "I should have guessed you were alive, from the look of you," returned Derette calmly. "So you're going into the anchorhold, I hear?" said Anania, fanning herself with her handkerch
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96  
97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

disgrace

 

Haimet

 

Gerhardt

 
Anania
 
reviled
 

ashamed

 
laughed
 

persecute

 

Blessed

 

refuse


answered
 

witness

 

equally

 

guessed

 

returned

 
Derette
 

killed

 

incisive

 

declare

 
calmly

fanning

 
handkerch
 

anchorhold

 

response

 

intercepting

 

follower

 

committed

 
Saints
 

lifting

 

righteously


judgeth

 

Himself

 

smiling

 

admitted

 

sorrowfully

 

subjects

 

Master

 

lighter

 

forsake

 

priest


Chaplain

 

behave

 

Reinbald

 

tonsure

 

priests

 

silken

 
ruffling
 

willingly

 

scornful

 

existence