THOU art.
I have trusted in thee, and shall never be confounded;" and with that
last breath of prayer earth was past.

A soft and solemn breathing, as of music, awakened him. As an infant
child not yet fully awake hears the holy warblings of his mother's hymn,
and smiles half conscious, so the heaven-born became aware of sweet
voices and loving faces around him ere yet he fully woke to the new
immortal LIFE.

"Ah, he has come at last. How long we have waited for him! Here he is
among us. Now forever welcome! welcome!" said the voices.

Who shall speak the joy of that latest birth, the birth from death to
life! the sweet, calm, inbreathing consciousness of purity and rest, the
certainty that all sin, all weakness and error, are at last gone
forever; the deep, immortal rapture of repose--felt to be but
begun--never to end!

So the eyes of the heaven-born opened on the new heaven and the new
earth, and wondered at the crowd of loving faces that thronged about
him. Fair, godlike forms of beauty, such as earth never knew, pressed
round him with blessings, thanks, and welcome.

The man spoke not, but he wondered in his heart who they were, and
whence it came that they knew him; and as soon as the inquiry formed
itself in his soul, it was read at once by his heavenly friends. "I,"
said one bright spirit, "was a poor boy whom you found in the streets:
you sought me out, you sent me to school, you watched over me, and led
me to the house of God; and now here I am." "And we," said other voices,
"are other neglected children whom you redeemed; we also thank you."
"And I," said another, "was a lost, helpless girl: sold to sin and
shame, nobody thought I could be saved; every body passed me by till you
came. You built a home, a refuge for such poor wretches as I, and there
I and many like me heard of Jesus; and here we are." "And I," said
another, "was once a clerk in your store. I came to the city innocent,
but I was betrayed by the tempter. I forgot my mother, and my mother's
God. I went to the gaming table and the theatre, and at last I robbed
your drawer. You might have justly cast me off; but you bore with me,
you watched over me, you saved me. I am here through you this day." "And
I," said another, "was a poor slave girl--doomed to be sold on the
auction block to a life of infamy, and the ruin of soul and body. Had
you not been willing to give so largely for my ransom, no one had
thought to buy me. You stimulated others