Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/133

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FAMILY LIFE.
117

“I dreamed that it was the day of judgment. The throne was set, and the books were opened. The dead, small and great, were gathered an innumerable multitude. I stood at the right hand of the Judge; my beloved wife was at my side. I looked about for my children, and I could not see them, I turned to the left hand of the Judge, and there stood my beloved ones. I beckoned to them; I called, ‘Come over here, you are on the wrong side’; but a gesture from the Judge held them bound where they stood, while from his lips came the words, ‘Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.’ The shock of the dream awoke me. O my children, shall we indeed be separated at the last day?” “No, father, no,” they exclaimed, “our father’s God shall be ours.” As he told this story with thrilling voice and heartfelt emotion, not one of the little company about him but resolved that there should be no separation for them from God and heaven and parents at the great day,—that they would all meet,—

“No wanderer lost,—a family in heaven.”

In the early part of 1854, Mr. Carter was greatly interested in the visit of Dr. Alexander Duff, of India, to America, and formed for him a very strong friendship. He was perfectly carried away by the fiery eloquence of that extraordinary man, of whom it might truly be said, “The zeal of thine house has eaten me up,” One of his illustrations Mr. Carter loved to repeat. Dr. Duff quoted with thrilling eloquence an old Jacobite song, in which a Highland woman says,—