Truly I was tested that day, as I watched Alden choke out words of praise and welcome for the stranger, who has left a native land and come “to a people whom you did not know before.” Giles Alden had a full, rich voice, and was a good reader, but one who had not heard him before that day would not have said so. He fumbled through the passage, stopping many times to clear his throat, I suppose because the words he was compelled to utter stuck in his craw: “The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have
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