d I would do so still, yea, with fire and sword, had
I the power."

"Then thou art one of Mohammed's followers?" said the Angel.

"I? a Mohammedan?--never!"

"'He who strikes with the sword shall perish by the sword,' thus spake
the Son; His religion thou knowest not. It may be that thou art one of
the children of Israel, whose maxim is, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for
a tooth'--art thou such?"

"I am a Christian."

"I see it not in thy faith or in thine actions. The law of Christ is the
law of forgiveness, love, and mercy."

"Mercy!" The gracious echo of that sweet word thrilled through infinite
space, the gates of heaven opened, and the Soul hovered toward the
realms of endless bliss.

But the flood of light that streamed forth from within was so dazzlingly
bright, so transcendently white and pure, that the Soul shrank back as
from a two-edged sword, and the hymns and harp-tones of Angels mingled
in such exquisite celestial harmony as the earthly mind has not power
either to conceive or to endure. And the Soul trembled and bowed itself
deeper and deeper, and the heavenly light penetrated it through and
through, and it felt to the quick, as it had never truly felt before,
the burden of its own pride, cruelty, and sin.

"What I have done of good in the world, that did I because I could not
otherwise, but the evil that I did--that was of myself!"

The confession was wrung from him; more and more the man felt dazzled
and overpowered by the pure light of heaven; he seemed falling into a
measureless abyss, the abyss of his own nakedness and unworthiness.
Shrunk into himself, humbled, cast out, unripe for the kingdom of
heaven, shuddering at the thought of the just and holy God--hardly dared
he to gasp out, "Mercy!"

And the face of the Angel at the portal was turned toward him in
softening pity. "Mercy is for them who implore it, not claim it; there
is Mercy also for thee. Turn thee, child of man, turn thee back the way
thou camest to thy clayey tabernacle; in pity is it given thee to dwell
in dust yet a little while. Be no longer righteous in thine own eyes,
copy Him who with patience endured the contradiction of sinners, strive
and pray that thou mayest become poor in spirit, and so mayest thou yet
inherit the Kingdom."

"Holy, loving, glorious forever shalt thou be, O, erring human
spirit!"--thus rang the chorus of Angels. And again overpowered by those
transcendent melodies, dazzled and blinded by that exc