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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.) 11