Miss Katie's Rosewood by Michael Phillips Page A

forward. Teague was defiant, unrepentant, full of venom and hatred. When Robert took the witness stand, he could not look him in the eye. Much had been resolved within him. But he still could not openly face the man his own accusation had brought here.
    The jury took less than an hour to reach the verdict: Guilty .
    The judge banged his gavel several times to silence the temporary uproar, then announced his own decision in the matter of the sentence.
    â€œI sentence you, Damon Teague, to hang by the neck until dead.”
    Tears stung Robert’s eyes.
    He stumbled out of the courtroom and outside, amid jubilation of the spectators both inside and outside.
    He walked hurriedly along the street, broke into a run as he heard voices calling his name, finally turning into a deserted alley. He continued to run through it, turned again, and finally collapsed on the back stairs of an abandoned brick warehouse.
    He sat down and wept. The trial had been just. The sentence was just. The wages of sin was death. But the wages of all sin. In Robert’s ears, the sentence was pronounced, not against Damon Teague, but against him .
    What about me? he thought. I am a sinner. I deserve the same! I—Robert Paxton—am guilty too .
    The pounding of the gavel brought all his doubts from before Ohio back to the surface.
    â€œOh, God,” he cried, “forgive me of my own sin! That poor man! May I never judge anyone again by a different standard than I judge myself, or by a different standard thanyou judge all men. Forgive him for what he has done . . . and forgive me!”
    And with that simple prayer for forgiveness, truth began to grow in Robert’s soul—truth that soon turned to hope. Yes, he was a sinner along with Damon Teague. But such a thing as forgiveness also existed. Sin and death were not the end for either of them.
    It was in God’s heart of goodness to forgive! He sent His own Son to earth to open the door into that forgiveness by His own willing and sacrificial death.
    As he sat, tears still pouring from his eyes, a simple revelation stole into Robert’s heart—simple, yet a revelation upon which turns the destiny of eternity: As he and Damon Teague were both sinners, so too they had both been forgiven.
    â€œGod, oh, God,” he prayed, “thank you that you love me and forgive me in spite of the sin I have seen within myself. I want to be your son, your obedient son. Help me to learn to call you Father just as Jesus did, and to know you as He knew you.”

T HE C ELL
    9

    W HEN THE VISITOR APPEARED AT THE B ALTIMORE jail to see the condemned prisoner, it took the guard on duty by surprise. Teague had not had a single visitor since the trial.
    â€œYou be careful in there,” he said. “He’s a violent one—you call if he tries to start something.”
    â€œI will,” said the visitor.
    The guard led him in, and unlocked the door.
    Teague glanced up. His visitor walked into the cell and stood waiting. Teague remained seated on the edge of his bunk, elbows on his knees, dirty fingers clasped together, stringy hair falling around his shoulders.
    â€œCome to gloat, did you?” he said cynically.
    â€œNo, I did not come to gloat,” said Robert quietly.
    â€œWhat, then? You got what you wanted. Why don’t you just get out of here!”
    Robert stood silent.
    Even now at this eleventh hour of earthly opportunity, the condemned man still had defiance written in every line of his face. But a great change had taken place within Robert Paxton. For the first time since the arrest he was able to lookstraight into Teague’s eyes without the remorse of his own personal guilt.
    And now he did look into those eyes.
    In the passage of but seconds, eternity itself opened into his spirit. For those brief moments he saw into the depths of Damon Teague—murderer and unrepentant sinner—and seemed to see his soul with a fragmentary glimpse of what God