Perhaps it was
the weakness and languor resulting from his accident that made him
willing to sit quietly a whole morning or afternoon in the study
beside the bishop's table, when, before this, to sit still for half an
hour would have been an almost unendurable penance to him; but there
was another and a far stronger reason in the deep reverential love for
the bishop, that day by day was growing and strengthening into a
passion in his young heart. The boy's heart was like a garden-spot in
which the rich, strong soil lay ready to receive any seed that might
fall upon it. Better seed could not be than that which all
unconsciously this man of God--the bishop--was sowing therein, as day
after day he gave his Master's message to the sick and sinful and
sorrowful souls that came to him for help and comfort.
It goes without saying that the bishop had small leisure, for many and
heavy were the demands upon his time and thought, but nevertheless he
kept two hours a day sacredly free from all other claims, that he
might give them to any of God's poor or troubled ones who desired to
see him, and believing that Tode could hear nothing that was said, he
often kept the boy with him during these hours.
Strange and wonderful lessons were those that the little street boy
learned from the consecrated lips of the good bishop--lessons of God's
love to man, and of the loving service that man owes not only to his
God, but to his brother man.
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