Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — "JIM KNEW.” [ARTICLE]

"JIM KNEW.”

But His «* Knowledge ” Darkened HiS Mother’s Life. She lived in a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains. She was gray, old, poor, religious—■ religion was her sole comfort. She read her Bible and prayed continually. Her son Jim was out West. She exhibited the beggarly remittances which he sent her with trembling bands and sparkling, pride-full eyes. Jhn came home to stay. Her cup of joy was full. On the afternoon of his arrival she was reading her Bible and whispering prayers of thankfulness. Jim approached her and spread his rough hands over the page she was reading. She regarded him with surprise. He told her that he had heard great men talk out West, and had learned that the Bible was not true—was not the inspired Word of God. Her face was as yellow as unbleached flax; a wisp of faded hair fell down her cheek. She put up her toilhardened hands to stop him, but he talked on eloquently. She said not a word when he had finished and left the cabin, but she rose, and going to her bed in the corner of the room,.she knelt and tried in vain to pray. She stood in the cabin door in struggle; there was no sign of blood in her face. Jim was right, she supposed; she had never known him to be wrong. People had always said he had a keen mind. The next Sunday she did not go to meeting; she stayed at home, and tried to comprehend what Jim had to say about the mistakes of the Bible. She trembled and felt cold in her breast as the singing from the meeting-house stole over the hill and through the trees. She fell ill. The shadow of death came into her face. Neighbors wiped their eyes at her door and gathered at her bedside. The preacher came, “Are you ready to go, sister?” he asked. “I don’t know,” she gasped, and cast an appealing glance at her son, who stood at the foot of the bed. “I’ve heerd ’at the Bible ain’t true. I use ter b’lieve ’at when my time come I’d go off easy, but now it’s just awful—awful!” She tried to put out her hand toward Jim, essayed to speak, but death froze her unasked question on her face.