e harder I strove the
deeper I sank. Then the image of my dear father often came across me,
but I turned from it. Whenever it came, a heavy numbing throb seemed to
take hold of my heart and say, 'Dead--dead--dead.' And I cried out, 'The
living, the living shall praise Thee, O God; the dead cannot praise
Thee. There is no work in the grave; in the night no man can work. But I
can work. I can do great things. I _will_ do great things. Why wilt Thou
slay me?' And so I struggled and plunged, deeper and deeper, and went
down into a living black tomb. I was alone there, with no power to stir
or think; alone with myself; beyond the reach of all human fellowship;
beyond Christ's reach, I thought, in my nightmare. You, who are brave
and bright and strong, can have no idea of that agony. Pray to God you
never may. Pray as for your life."

Arthur stopped--from exhaustion, Tom thought; but what between his fear
lest Arthur should hurt himself, his awe, and longing for him to go on,
he couldn't ask, or stir to help him.

Presently he went on, but quite calm and slow. "I don't know how long I
was in that state. For more than a day, I know; for I was quite
conscious, and lived my outer life all the time, and took my medicine,
and spoke to my mother, and heard what they said. But I didn't take much
note of time; I thought time was over for me, and that that tomb was
what was beyond. Well, on last Sunday morning, as I seemed to lie in
that tomb, alone, as I thought, for ever and ever, the black dead wall
was cleft in two, and I was caught up and borne through into the light
by some great power, some living mighty spirit. Tom, do you remember the
living creatures and the wheels in Ezekiel? It was just like that: 'when
they went I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great
waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise
of an host; when they stood they let down their wings'--'and they went
every one straight forward; whither the spirit was to go they went, and
they turned not when they went.' And we rushed through the bright air,
which was full of myriads of living creatures, and paused on the brink
of a great river. And the power held me up, and I knew that that great
river was the grave, and death dwelt there; but not the death I had met
in the black tomb--that I felt was gone for ever. For on the other bank
of the great river I saw men and women and children rising up pure and
bright, and the tears