their voices in his ear was but as some great strain of
music which he had heard many times and knew and heeded not. He turned to
the goods which he had laid up for many years, and all the knowledge he
had stored, and said to himself, 'Soul, take thine ease.' And to the
heavenly advocates he smiled and replied that life was strong and wisdom
the master of all. Then there came a chill and a shiver over all, as if
the earth had been stopped in her career or the sun fallen from the sky;
and the little Pilgrim, looking on, could see the heavenly pleaders come
forth with bowed heads and the door of hope shut to, and a whisper which
crept about from sea to sea and said, 'In vain! in vain!' And as they
went forth from the gates an icy breath swept in, and the voice of the
Death-Angel saying, 'Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee!' The sound went through her heart as if it had been pierced by a
sword, and she gave a cry of anguish, for she could not bear that a
brother should be lost. But when she looked up at the face of her
companion, though it was pale with the pity and the terror of that which
had been thus accomplished, there was still upon it a smile; and he said,
'Not yet; not yet. The Father loves not less, but more than ever.' 'O
friend,' she cried, 'will there ever come a moment when the Father will
forget? IS there any place where He cannot go?'

Then he who was wise turned towards her, and a great light came upon his
face; and he said, 'We have searched the records, and heard all witnesses
from the beginnings of time; but we have never found the boundary of His
mercy, and there is no country known to man that is without his presence.
And never has it been known that He has shut His ear to those who called
upon Him, or forgotten one who is His. The heavenly pleaders may be
silenced, but never our Lord, who pleads for all; and heaven and earth
may forget, yet will He never forget who is the Father of all. And every
child of His is to Him as if there was none other in the world.'

Then the little Pilgrim lifted her face and beheld that radiance which is
over all, which is the love that lights the world, both angels and the
great spheres above and the little brethren who stumble and struggle and
weep; and in that light there was no darkness at all, but everything
shone as in the morning, sweet yet terrible, but ever clear and fair. And
immediately, ere she was aware, the rough roads of the earth were