The bird was not near,
so, dismounting, he picked up an egg and placed it in an inside
pocket of his coat. Continuing the journey, the egg was forgotten,
and the horse, galloping along, suddenly tripped and fell. The rider
was thrown to the ground, where he lay stunned. Three hours
afterwards consciousness returned. As his weary eyes wandered, he
noticed, with horror, that his chest and side were thickly besmeared.
With a cry of despair, he lay back, groaning, "I have burst!" The
presence of the egg he had put in his pocket had quite passed from
his mind!
I FIND A LONE SCOTSMAN.
One evening after a long day's journey, I reached a house, away near
the Brazilian frontier, and was surprised indeed to see that the
owner was a real live Scotsman. Great was my astonishment and
pleasure at receiving such a warm Scotch welcome. He was eighty miles
away from any village - alone in the mountains - and at the sight of me
he wept like a child. Never can I forget his anguish as he told me
that his beloved wife had died just a few days before, and that he
had buried her - "there in the glen." At the sight of a British face
he had completely broken down; but, pulling himself together, he
conducted me through into the courtyard, and the difficulty of my
journey was forgotten as we sat down to the evening meal.
Being anxious to hear the story of her who had presided at his
board, I bade him recount to me the sad circumstances.
She was a "bonnie lassie," and he had "lo'ed her muckle." There they
had lived for twelve years, shut out from the rest of the world, yet
content. Hand in hand they had toiled in joy and sorrow, when no rain
fell for eight long months, and their cattle died; or when increase
was good, and flocks and herds fat. Side by side they had stood alone
in the wild tangle of the wilderness. And now, when riches had been
gathered and comfort could be had, his "lassie" had left him, and
"Oh! he grudged her sair to the land o' the leal!" Being so far
removed from his fellows, he had been compelled to perform the sacred
offices of burial himself. Surrounded by kind hearts and loving
sympathizers, it is sad indeed to lose our loved ones. But how
inexpressibly more sad it is when, away in loneliness, a man digs the
cold clay tomb for all that is left of his only joy! When our dear
ones sleep in "God's acre" surrounded by others it is sad. But how
much more heartbreaking is it to bury the darling wife in the depths
of the mountains alone, where a strong stone wall must be built
around the grave to keey the wild beasts from tearing out the
remains! Only those who have been so situated can picture the
solemnity of such a scene.
At his urgent request, I promised I would accompany him to the spot -
sanctified by his sorrow and watered by his tears - where he had laid
his dear one. Early the following morning a native servant saddled
two horses, and we rode in silence towards the hallowed ground. In
about thirty minutes we came in view of the quiet tomb. Encircling
the grave he had built a high stone wall. When he silently opened the
gate, I saw that, although all the pasture outside was dry and
withered, that on the mound was beautifully green and fresh. Had he
brought water from his house, for there was none nearer, or was it
watered by his tears? His greatest longing was, as he had explained
to me the previous night, that she should have a Christian burial,
and if I would read some chapter over her grave he would feel more
content, he said. As with bared heads we reverently knelt on the
mound, I now complied with his request. Then, for the first time in
the world's history, the trees that surrounded us listened to the
Christian doctrine of a resurrection from the dead. "It is sown in
corruption, it is raised in incorruption." And the leaves whispered
to the mountains beyond, which gave back the words: "It is sown a
natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
Never have I seen a man so broken with grief as was that lone
Scotsman. There were no paid mourners or idle sightseers. There was
no show of sorrow while the heart remained indifferent and untouched.
It was the spectacle of a lone man who had buried his all and was
left -
"To linger when the sun of life,
The beam that gilds its path, is gone -
To feel the aching bosom's strife,
When Hope is dead and Love lives on."
As we knelt there, I spoke to the man about salvation from sin, and
unfolded God's plan of inheritance and reunions in the future life.
The Lord gave His blessing, and I left him next day rejoicing in the
Christ who said: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that
believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
As the world moves forward, and man pushes his way into the waste
places of the earth, that lonely grave will be forgotten. Populous
cities will be built; but the doctrine the mountains then heard shall
live when the gloomy youth of Uruguay is forgotten.
THE WORD OF GOD CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE R. C. CHURCH.
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve." - The Christ.
"Mary must be the first object of our worship, St. Joseph the
second." - Roman Catholic Catechism.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth.
