A Soldier Confronts the Judgment
ONE of the old historians relates that two soldiers came in the track of the Crusades to the Valley of Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem. One of them remarked to the other in a ribald way: "Here is where the preachers say the general Judgment is to be held; I may as well find the place now where I shall sit at my trial." So he planted himself on a big stone, and looked up towards the sky, as if waiting to receive his sentence. But all at once the reality of that tremendous scene burst upon his imagination. He was overwhelmed with dismay and terror; off from the rock he fell trembling upon his bended knees, and began to implore the pardon of God for his trifling. He took a sense, for once, of the meaning and majesty of a moment in which a soul should face its Maker on a question of character and eternal doom. —Sel.