ght of it.
We felt ourselves to be strangers in a strange land. The people we met
looked upon us as we look upon barbarians. Our hearts sickened. We
said to each other: 'It is too high, we cannot reach up to it.' The
very blessings we had come to see did not look to us like the blessings
of which we had dreamed.

"But our greatest trial was still to come. The Lord had come back to
the earth and was living among the people of that Age. We made our way
to the palace in which He lived. It was like no palace we had ever
seen. It was like great clouds piled up among the hills. We were
present when the doors were thrown open. We beheld Him coming forth.
But the vision of that glory smote our eyes like fire. We were not
able to gaze upon it. Our hearts failed within us. This was not the
Christ we had known. We shrank back from the light of that awful
presence. We fell on the ground before Him. 'God be merciful to us
sinners,' we cried, 'we are not worthy to look upon thy face.' And
when we could open our eyes again the vision had passed.

"Then, O father! then, O friends beloved, I knew that I had sinned. In
that moment of my humiliation and shame I recalled a sight which I had
seen in the first days of my journey. I remembered some peasants
fleeing from a plague-stricken village, whom we had passed. I said to
myself, I say this day to you, we were that day at the gates of the
real Golden Age and we did not know it. We might that day have turned
aside to the help of these peasants, but we missed the golden chance
sent to us by God."

VI.

THE FINDER OF THE AGE.

When Goldmorrow had finished, a strain of the most heavenly music was
heard. It sounded as if it were coming toward the assembly hall from
the gates of the city. It was like the chanting of a choir of angels,
and the sounds rose and fell as they came near, as if they were blown
hither and thither by the evening wind. In a little while the singing
was at the doorway of the hall, and every eye was turned in that
direction. A procession of white-robed children entered first. Behind
them came a coffin, carried on men's shoulders, and covered with
wreaths of flowers. Then, holding the pall of the coffin, came in the
Princess Faith, behind her the attendants who had accompanied her
brother and herself, and last of all a long line of bare-headed
peasants walking two and two. It was the coffin of the Prince
Goldenday. His strength had nev