We all occupy a situation like that. We look, by sublime faith, beyond the dividing Jordan flood to our promised land. It is the gracious Lord Himself shows us the way.

This was also presented to the University of the South.

CHAPTER XVI.

On May 30 the vice chancellor of the University wrote asking him to come to Sewanee and lecture on the "Series" and art. Accordingly, about the middle of June, he went. Those who have followed in this narrative his struggles to attain the end now reached can perhaps to some degree appreciate his feelings as he came before the assembly in Sewanee to tell them of his works, at last completed.

Of this he writes his wife:

"MY DEAR WIFE: It seems months since I left home-the more so because I have heard nothing from you-and yet the time is only one week.

"My usually quiet, uneventful life makes such a change appear like a revolution. Many faces turn up that seemed forgotten and wiped out with our memory of them, and it seems truly strange to have been remembered by them, so many years having passed since our living on the mountain.

"Of course that which touches me is of first interest, and the great event, speaking on my pictures is happily over. A marked success it proved. There was a crowd in the hall, and the board of trustees adjourned their meeting in order to be present. Certainly I never before had so distinguished an interested audience, nor was so warmly and cordially received. It was evident that my

labors were not without fruit, and I thank the Lord for the fruit of my toil. Bishop Gailor, in his happy manner, introduced me, and after concluding my address, which was without reference to my notes except the concluding sentences, the Bishop of Georgia made a call for a vote of thanks which brought all to their feet, and the Bishop of Florida concluded. Since then Dr. Du Bose and many others have spoken to me. But even this is not to be the end. Many desire more information, among them the divinity students, so there is promise that I have not labored in vain. It is certainly true that on the great world-public by my labors I have made very ephemeral impression, and they have practically ignored my doings and left me in poverty and alone. I care not for it. But here is a prospect of usefulness, for it, not fame, I have coveted, nor the gold that perisheth.

"Bishop Gailor also in his address said I had brought art to the mountain and educated a race of carvers in wood. You see the seed is not sown in vain."

June 29, 1902, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was formally conferred on him by the Bishop of Alabama, and he writes:

"So the august ceremony has confirmed the honorary proclamation of three years ago, and so I am a full-fledged D.D. Wonderful! What would now my little mother say who always regarded me as such an extraordinary specimen under any circumstances? What if she and father and brother Fritz looked on unseen! Who knows?

"Well, perhaps there is more and sounder

theology in my pictures and some of my old lectures than even is known or recognized by the authority that conferred the degree.

And to this Mrs. Oertel replied July 2:

"So you have come about to the climax of your career, the 'Great Series' done and given away, and yourself invested with the hood of a Doctor of Divinity. Yes; what would Grossmutter say? But more, what would Fritz say? (His brother Fritz was also a clergyman of the Church.) Well, it is not every man that struggles who is permitted to see the fruit of it all to such an extent, so we will be thankful. The way has been long and stony enough, and the top of the hill seemed unattainable --but you got there.'

It is quite certain these last words were not intended as slang, as probably she had never heard them so used.

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July 7 he lectured on the "Revelation of the Beautiful" in the hall where the big pictures had been hung. "So that now the series are together, he says, "and I also can see the accomplished struggle of many years in one room. It really appears as if your old man, in the evening of his days, were being looked upon as an individual of some importance and might be useful in the world, and that when the great world of art has forgotten my name and existence. It is better so."

With the works already mentioned the rest of this year was consumed.

An immense amount of work was done during the next year, although considerably broken into by the serious illness of his wife. First came "A

Glimpse of Glory," an old man on top of a ladder, leaning against clouds, eagerly looking over to see what is beyond. He says: "I call it 'Looking in.' Various are the ladders set for us by God's kind providence during our time of training, by means of which we may get a glimpse of glory."

Next he began to repair "The Final Harvest," which showed the effects of time and frequent moves, but after working on it for some days concluded it was not worth it and discarded it entirely, stretched a fresh canvas and repainted it. It was made the same size as the original, in a 6-foot circle, but the canvas was square so the frame could be made so, as the original had been in a circular frame, which was found to be a great disadvantage and very expensive.

There followed "Mary Magdalene Embracing the Foot of the Cross," "The Expulsion from Eden," "Noah's Sacrifice after the Flood," two figures of St. Paul, one of which was sent the Rev. E. L. Hyde with the note, "Keep the painting in memory of your old friend and the delightful visit he had from you." "The Victor," a design treated as statuary, the dead warrior carried from the battlefield upon his shield, according to the Spartan mother's charge to her son when giving him that defensive arm, "Come with it or upon it," since the greatest disgrace to a Spartan was to cast away, in fleeing from the enemy, his shield, and which the apostle, admonishing the Christian warrior, calls "the shield of faith."

In August of this year (1903) he again visited Sewanee remaining about five weeks. He retouched