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INTO HAmLOUS LIQHT
(Continued from last week.)
And while lie hesitated, he reasoned with his soul
thus:
“0 my soul, why has God put such a sweet and
holy affection within my heart, unsought by me, if
it be wrong-? Why has God put into her innocent
heart this love for me, if it be wrong-? His Word
does not say, “what man hath joined together, let
no man put asunder,” but “what God hath joined
together, let no man put asunder.” Her marriage
was against her will. It was not a marriage in the
sight of God. No! No! God hath given her to me!
She is mine in the sight of God! He gave her to
me from out of the very jaws of death, itself. In
her resurrection, she is mine, mine! The law that
is necessary to hold in check the morals of a nation,
cannot always apply to the individual. There are
exceptions to all rules, and may not this be one of
the exceptions?” His soul answered:
“0 man, will you stand before your people next
Lord ’s day, and preach this doctrine, proclaiming it
as inspired of God? Do you not know that God’s
inexorable law demands, without any exception, the
sacrifice of the individual for the salvation of the
race? Upon no other basis can the laws of a nation
be founded. Each individual must be his brother’s
keeper, must hold out a helping hand, forgetful of
self, to the weaker one by him, and thus, hand to
hand, form a great chain of stepping stones reach
ing from the dawn of Eden’s first morning to the
last day of time, when all stand together before
Him who gave His life to teach this great law of
the sacrifice of the individual for the salvation of
the race. ’Tis the law of all creation—life through
death—the acorn dies, the oak lives; the mother
dies, the son lives; humanity must die to behold di
vinity. And now, you, 0 man, who have professed
to be willing to lay your life upon the altar of sacri
fice, when your Lord asks you to take up your cross
on the way to Calvary, do you falter? Have you
been the pharisee who thanked God that he was not
as other men are, or who sought to pull the mote
out of his brother’s eye while unconscious of the
beam in his own? Will you be a Judas, professing
all these years to be one of the Lord’s chosen dis
ciples, yet when that which is most coveted by your
human heart is within your reach, you grasp it.
though by so doing you betray innocent blood and
damn not only your own soul, but your influence;
and be a traitor not only to Him, causing Him to
be crucified afresh, but also to the cause of the re
demption of mankind for which he gave His life?
“And, furthermore, 0 man, come with me to view
a series of pictures.
“First, to some far off land, you and your heart’s
desire flee, in search of a Garden of Eden where
but you two may abide, desiring no other compan
ionship, no man-made laws to fetter you, no abode
of civilization to house you; but content with heav
en’s blue for your canopy, the forest for your camp
ing ground, and the earth’s fruitage for your sub
sidy.
“Second, the scene has changed. The canopy
above you is no longer blue and serene, but is black
with angry clouds, while the lightning flashes and
the thunder rolls; your forest home has been de
vastated by the storm; while the fruit of the land
is bitter to the taste and lacking in nourishment.
“Third, but for a time, though the world storm
ed, your abode became a desert and you grew hun
gry for palatable and nourishing food, yet you and
your now hollow-eyed and pale-faced love clung to
each other more closely in your despair.
“Fourth, until one day, without warning to the
other of the serpent that had been growing within the
bosom of each from the first day of your flight, the
monsters suddenly sprang at the heart of each of
you and with fangs so sharp and venom so deadly,
instant death was the result.
“Fifth, in darkness your two departed souls were
cast, and they wandered to and fro in unutterable
(jespain crying for the hand of the living, for the
The Golden Age for September 6, 1906.
By LLEWELYN STEPHENS
land of man, for the land where no man is a law
unto himself alone, but where each man is taught
that he must give his life for mankind.
“Sixth, but your two lost souls wandered farther
and farther away from the land for which you so
longed, and were drawn by the force of some im
mutable law into a place inhabited by those only
who had died from the bite of the same serpent
which had destroyed you, and there every attri
bute of your unclothed souls met face to face.
“Seventh, but greater anguish than this, even,
was in store for you. Shortly after you had search
ed in vain for some escape from this hell, you met a
man the attributes of whose soul were so livid with
every evil passion, his form emitted a scorching
light as if there were a volcano of fury within him.
And he was darting hither and thither as a bird of
prey in search of something upon which to fasten
its talons.
“Eighth, at last a shrieking laughter pierced the
shadows. He had found his prey. And, if there
be such an emotion as hellish joy, Julian Deveaux
experienced it in keeping himself forever between
you and your lost loved one, and with increasing
taunts and jeers, because of your fall and banish
ment.
“Ninth, another scene yet. In the distance you
see a wandering soul. It is the awful wreck of a
once beautiful girl. There is something so familiar
about her, the inseparable trio grope their way to
ward her and peer into her face. They start aghast.
Those sunken eyes, pale, hollow cheeks, dissipated
expression, and—what more—yes, (he brand of sui
cide upon her forehead—no, no, that could not be
the once beautiful child, Maybelle. The sunken
eyes look up at each one of you, and as she recog
nizes her mother, her father and the friend of her
innocent childhood, the three who deserted her and
left her adrift in sin’s palace, she hurls such curses
upon you as are not known to human speech. She
asks why self-gratification, love of sensual pleas
ures and life upon earth were held up to her as all
of life; whv she was taught that to be queen of so
ciety was the only throne to which she should as
pire: why you cultivated her talents and beauty to
be displayed upon a stage for the world’s passing
flattery and adulation; why you encouraged her to
permit dissipated roues to be her associates, so that
one day her purity was stolen, from which she drift
ed down, down, down into the gutter, and finally
into a suicide’s grave, through which she sank into
this abyss of such unutterable darkness and de
spair?
“Tenth, and the last scene, I ask you to behold—
-0 faltering man, hesitating upon the brink of self
gratification—while you and the three once dearest
upon earth to you wander night after night in in
creasing despair, there begins to circle round and
round you a procession of souls lost through your
iiifluence and as one by one they point to you in
scorn, these extended arms seem transformed into
flames of fire which pierce you through and through,
until by and by you suffer all the tortures which a
literal lake of fire could inflict upon your human
bodies, were they cast into a literal hell of fire and
brimstone!
“0 man, while you hesitate, listen to the Word
of God which pierces more keenly than any two
edged sword!
“ ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and
the gospel’s, the same shall save it.’
‘ ‘ ‘ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul?’
“ ‘The good shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep.’
“ ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with
me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am
sat down with my Father in his throne.’
“0 man. will you abandon the substance for tbe
shadow, the sun of eternal day for the star which
vanisheth in a night?”
spair?
John Marsden sat as one stricken, powerless to
cry out or move, such a fearful hold did the evil
one have upon him. Then when he felt himself
sinking into darkness, with no strength to arise, and
all confidence in himself lost, with a superhuman ef
fort, he cried aloud:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
’Tis always so. In his own strength man can
not lift himself above temptation. He must come
to the point where he realizes that all power in
heaven and earth is in God, and none in man, ex
cept whereby the former is transmitted to him.
His call to God gave him strength to rise and with
arms extended upward, he exclaimed:
“My Lord, save me or I perish!”
And to that cry which the Lord has never yet fail
ed to respond, he felt the very hand of Christ grasp
his own, the very presence of the God-man beside
him, and heard a well known voice saying:
“Oh, thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt? Lovest thou me?”
“Yea, Lord,” he answered, his whole sole melt
ing into that divine love as far above human love
as heaven is above earth.
“Then follow me, and feed my lambs.”
And even Gethsemane was made a hallowed spot,
because, though it was his soul’s battlefield, yet a
mighty host of God encompassed him and the Lord
himself destroyed the enemy.
CHAPTER XLI.
When Christiana saw John going from her, she
felt that he was gone not to return, and though
her arms reached out after him, yet from her soul
she whispered:
“Thou knowest best, dear God. Thy will, not
mine, be done.”
As she turned to ascend the steps, hoping for
strength to reach her room alone, she faced her
husband. She had never seen him in such a passion
as that which distorted his whole form now. He
was truly possessed of a demon. She swayed from
faintness, overcome by this unexpected terror tower
ing above her. He made no effort to catch her, but
let her fall prone just as she reached the landing.
His uppermost desire was to tear her heart from
her bosom, arid under his feet stamp from it every
drop of life blood which throbbed for John Mars
den. He snatched her up, and with all his ph/sical
strength crushed her against his heart, exclaiming:
“Your soul his! Nothing but your body is mine!
The jewel his! Nothing but the casket mine! But,
ah, it is within my power to kill the body, to release
the soul, and cause it to depart where even he can
not hold it within his arms and feel the thrill of its
throb against his heart! So thou shalt die! die!
Her head fell back, and the blood oozed from her
lips and dropped upon the white gown where it
covered her heart.
And when he saw that his purpose was accom
plished, that from out the broken heart the soul
had been set free, he placed the lifeless form upon
a divan within the recesses of a deeply curtained
window, and stood gazing down upon it. Then he
laughed aloud, as if some new thought suddenly
pleased him.
Drawing the draperies together, he hastened to
his room, secured a pistol, and returned down tKe
fatal stairway.
John Marsden found himself suddenly in a room
ablaze with light, and the next moment in the pres
ence of a mad man pointing a pistol at his heart.
John was calm now, with that calmness winch comes
alone from the victory which has followed a soul
hattie. lie had been lifted up upon a higher plane,
where he could view the life beyond that valley
we call death, without a tremor of the soul. So
he did not quail before the instrument of death or
tremble in the presence of the man in whom he
had never seen revenge and hatred so personified
( as now,
(Continued nest week.)
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