Part 8 (1/2)
”My daughter,” my friend explained, ”who left us in early childhood, has received a fine musical training here, and is fond of gathering in her young friends and giving us quite often a musical treat. You know our old home of Springville has furnished some rare voices for the heavenly choirs. Mary Allis, Will Griggs, and many others you will often hear in this room, I trust.”
We re-entered, from this room, the dainty reception hall opening upon the front veranda and outer steps. Here Mrs. Wickham drew me to a seat beside her and said:
”Now, tell me everything of the dear home and all its blessed inmates.”
Holding each other's hands as we talked, she questioning, I answering, things too sacred to be repeated here were dwelt upon for hours. At last she said, rising hastily:
”I will leave you for a little while--nay, you must not go,” as I would have risen, ”there is much yet to be said; wait here, I will return.”
I had already learned not to question the judgment of these wiser friends, and yielded to her will. As she pa.s.sed through the doorway to the inner house, I saw a stranger at the front entrance and arose to meet him. He was tall and commanding in form, with a face of ineffable sweetness and beauty. Where had I seen him before? Surely, surely I had met him since I came. ”Ah, now I know!” I thought; ”it is St.
John, the beloved disciple.” He had been pointed out to me one morning by the river-side.
”Peace be unto this house,” was his salutation as he entered.
How his voice stirred and thrilled me! No wonder the Master loved him, with that voice and that face!
”Enter. Thou art a welcome guest. Enter, and I will call the mistress,” I said, as I approached to bid him welcome.
”Nay, call her not. She knows that I am here; she will return,” he said. ”Sit thou awhile beside me,” he continued, as he saw that I still stood, after I had seen him seated. He arose and led me to a seat near him, and like a child I did as I was bidden; still watching, always watching, the wonderful face before me.
”You have but lately come?” he said.
”Yes, I am here but a short time. So short that I know not how to reckon time as you count it here,” I answered.
”Ah, that matters little,” he said with a gentle smile. ”Many cling always to the old reckoning and the earth-language. It is a link between the two lives; we would not have it otherwise. How does the change impress you? How do you find life here?”
”Ah,” I said, ”if they could only know! I never fully understood till now the meaning of that sublime pa.s.sage, 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which G.o.d hath prepared for them that love him.' It is indeed past human conception.” I spoke with deep feeling.
”'For them that love him'? Do you believe that all Christians truly love him?” he asked. ”Do you think they love the Father for the gift of the Son and the Son because of the Father's love and mercy? Or is their wors.h.i.+p ofttimes that of duty rather than love?” He spoke reflectively and gently.
”Oh,” I said, ”you who so well know the beloved Master--who were so loved by him--how can you doubt the love he must inspire in all hearts who seek to know him?”
A radiant glow overspread the wonderful face, which he lifted, looking directly at me--the mist rolled away from before my eyes--and I knew him! With a low cry of joy and adoration, I threw myself at his feet, bathing them with happy tears. He gently stroked my bowed head for a moment, then rising, lifted me to his side.
”My Savior--my King!” I whispered, clinging closely to him.
”Yes, and Elder Brother and Friend,” he added, wiping away tenderly the tears stealing from beneath my closed eyelids.
”Yes, yes, 'the chiefest among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely!'” again I whispered.
”Ah, now you begin to meet the conditions of the new life! Like many another, the changing of faith to sight with you has engendered a little shrinking, a little fear. That is all wrong. Have you forgotten the promise, 'I go to prepare a place for you; that where I am, there ye may be also'? If you loved me when you could not see me except by faith, love me more now when we have really become 'co-heirs of the Father.' Come to me with all that perplexes or gladdens; come to the Elder Brother always waiting to receive you with joy.”
Then he drew me to a seat, and conversed with me long and earnestly, unfolding many of the mysteries of the divine life. I hung upon his words; I drank in every tone of his voice; I watched eagerly every line of the beloved face; and I was exalted, uplifted, upborne, beyond the power of words to express. At length with a divine smile, he arose.
”We will often meet,” he said; and I, bending over, pressed my lips reverently to the hand still clasping my own. Then laying his hands a moment in blessing upon my bowed head, he pa.s.sed noiselessly and swiftly from the house.
As I stood watching the Savior's fast-receding figure, pa.s.sing beneath the flower-laden trees, I saw two beautiful young girls approaching the way he went. With arms intertwining they came, happily conversing together, sweet Mary Bates and Mae Camden. When they saw the Master, with a glad cry they flew to meet him, and as he joyously extended a hand to each, they turned, and each clinging to his hand, one upon either side, accompanied him on his way, looking up trustingly into his face as he talked with them, and apparently conversing with him with happy freedom. I saw his face from time to time in profile, as he turned and looked down lovingly, first upon one, then the other lovely upturned face, and I thought, ”That is the way he would have us be with him--really as children with a beloved elder brother.” I watched them till the trees hid them from my sight, longing to gather the dear girls to my heart, but knowing his presence was to them then more than aught else; then I turned and pa.s.sed softly through the house to the beautiful entrance at the rear. Just before I reached the door I met my friend Mrs. Wickham. Before I could speak, she said:
”I know all about it. Do not try to speak; I know your heart is full.