Part 35 (1/2)
”He had. Two nights ago he had a dream.”
”Never! Ian never dreams.”
”He dreamt last Friday morning just at or before the streak of dawn.
Listen!”
Then in an awed and whispering voice she related Ian's dream. The Major, who was naturally a psychic man and a great dreamer, listened with intense interest, but did not at once make any comment. After a short reflection, however, he answered with an air of complacent grat.i.tude:
”G.o.d's dealings with the Macraes have ever been close and personal.
Plenty of preachers are no doubt preaching this day what they do not believe, but they have not been shown and warned like Ian. I think his dream was a great honor and favor.”
”You Macraes have a wonderful way of appropriating G.o.d. I dare say a great many ministers have been warned and advised as well as Ian.”
”No, Jessy, they have not. If they had been warned as Ian was warned, they would have done exactly as Ian has done. Dreams are strange things.
You cannot help noticing them--you cannot help being led by them. I wonder why.”
”Because dreams belong to the Spiritual World, and humanity has an instinctive belief in this Spiritual World. You do not have to teach men and women to dream. A true dreamer has the gift in childhood as perfectly as in old age. There is no age, no race, no cla.s.s, no circ.u.mstances free from dreams. G.o.d is everywhere and knows everything, and He speaks to His children in dreams and by the oracles that lurk in darkness.”
”In my own life, Mrs. Caird, they have often read the future. How do they do it?”
”How can we tell what subtle lines are between Spirit and Spirit? A century ago n.o.body knew how messages could be sent through the air--sent all over the world. We had not then discovered the medium nor the method. In another century--or less--we may discover the medium and method of communication between this world and the other.”
”Do you think some houses are more easily visited by dreams than others?”
”Yes, and for many reasons, but they cannot be prevented from entering any place to which they are sent. I was not a week at Cramer before I was aware
'of Dreams upon the wall, And visions pa.s.sing up the shadowy stair and through the vacant hall.'”
”I am glad you told me of Ian's dream. I understand him better now.”
”And like him better?”
”Yes, but I have always loved Ian above all others.”
”Then be patient with him now. It is hard for mortals to live when their moments are filled with eternity.”
CHAPTER XI
LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW
”Then, as the veil is rent in twain, From unremembered places where they lay Dead thoughts, dead words arise and live again, The clouded eyes can see, the lips can pray.
A purer light dawns on the night of pain, And, on the morrow, 'tis the Sabbath day.”
The love of G.o.d, which pa.s.seth all understanding.
For a few days Dr. Macrae was seen frequently about the streets of Glasgow. Some bowed to him, some pa.s.sed by on the other side. He was also generally accompanied by Major Macrae or by a certain well-known lawyer, neither of them men partial to greetings in the market place or conversations at the street corners. So in a manner he was protected by his companions and his preoccupation. In his home all knew that he was going away, but no one named the circ.u.mstance to him. It was not an easy thing to talk to Macrae on subjects he did not wish named.