But I heard a voice that somewhere I had heard before,--though
where I did not know,--and this voice blessed those that railed and
jeered and shamefully entreated. And suddenly the voice called
'Dimas, Dimas!' and the thief upon whose hardened face I rested made
answer.
"Then I saw that it was Dimas; yet to this wicked criminal there
remained but little of the shepherd child whom I had seen in all his
innocence upon the hill-side. Long years of sinful life had seared
their marks into his face; yet now, at the sound of that familiar
voice, somewhat of the old-time boyish look came back, and in the
yearning of the anguished eyes I seemed to see the shepherd's son
again.
"'The Master!' cried Dimas, and he stretched forth his neck that he
might see him that spake.
"'O Dimas, how art thou changed!' cried the Master, yet there was in
his voice no tone of rebuke save that which cometh of love.
"Then Dimas wept, and in that hour he forgot his pain. And the
Master's consoling voice and the Master's presence there wrought in
the dying criminal such a new spirit, that when at last his head fell
upon his bosom, and the men about the cross said that he was dead, it
seemed as if I shined not upon a felon's face, but upon the face of
the gentle shepherd lad, the son of Benoni.
"And shining on that dead and peaceful face, I bethought me of the
little Master's words that he had spoken under the old olive-tree upon
the hill-side: 'Your eyes behold the promised glory now, O Dimas,' I
whispered, 'for with the Master you walk in Paradise.
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