Miss Katie's Rosewood Read Free Page A

ministry.
    Little did either Robert or Jane, or anyone in the family—older sister Rachel or father or mother—know anything about the man who had been sitting in one of the pews listening with the fire of hatred in his eyes at what he heard. He left the church that day and they forgot all about him.
    But it was that day’s sermon that would change both the lives of the minister’s son and the angry listener.
    For young Robert, his commitment to the ministry was not just an idle whim. He took to reading his Bible, and within two years he was studying seriously, reading theological books, and following with great interest the careers of the most notable evangelists of the day. At sixteen he preached his first sermon, filling in for his father one Sunday when he was away. The entire congregation was impressed, even a little awed by the maturity that was clearly developing in the young man’s outlook and perspective.
    But other things were growing within him as well. His rapid spiritual and intellectual progress provided fertile soil for the unseen growth of youthful pride and ambition—seeds that lay dormant within all but which often sprout mostvigorously in the most gifted. He did not merely want to be a minister, his dream was to become a great minister. His aspirations mounted as his knowledge of evangelical doctrine increased. He had no deep personal awareness of his own sin and fallen nature. And although his belief was real enough, it had not been tested against the realities of life, and as yet possessed little of the humility that is forged in failure and self-doubt. Things came easily, he was admired by all, and thus pride spread its subtle tentacles throughout his character.
    As for the obscure listener who had slipped in and out of the church almost but not altogether unnoticed, his hatred deepened, as hatred that is not rooted out and destroyed always will. It grew to such passion during his years as a Confederate soldier that he spoke openly of killing Abraham Lincoln one day for freeing the nation’s slaves. He never forgot the pastor’s sermon he had heard years earlier. In his mind it was always linked to the Emancipation Proclamation, almost as if Lincoln himself had been sitting in the same pew that day listening to the minister’s words and had based his later decision upon them. Deep in his heart, the vengeance he vowed on behalf of the South and the Confederacy, if opportunity ever presented itself, remained equally directed toward the president and the minister. Both were part of the same evil cause. Vengeance must be exacted against them.
    Opportunity did present itself in the year 1864 when he found himself back in Baltimore. The war had begun to turn against the Confederacy. Some master stroke was needed to arouse the South with new passion for its cause. What more fitting public display than the assassination of a leading Southern minister who was a traitor to the Confederacy? It would make his assassin a hero, and reignite the war effort.
    One Sunday morning, halfway through the morning worship service, the doors of Baltimore’s Congregational Assembly suddenly burst open with a crash and bang.
    The minister glanced over the heads of his congregation at the interruption. His voice stopped. Heads throughout the building turned. But there was no time to think what to do. A man wearing Confederate grey, long dirty blond hair flying wildly, ran halfway down the center aisle shouting curses and threats and waving a pistol in the air.
    â€œHe’s got a gun!” someone shouted.
    A shot rang out toward the front. One of the stained-glass windows shattered and glass fell to the floor.
    Screams erupted throughout the church. Pandemonium broke loose. The minister dove behind the pulpit while the congregation fell to the floor, seeking cover beneath their pews. More shots exploded wildly in every direction, their echoes mixed with piercing screams from the women in