[From our story of "The Two Brides," we take a scene, in which someone sorrowing as those without hope may find words of consolation.]
IN the very springtime of young womanhood, the destroyer had come;and though he laid his hand upon her gently at first, yet the touchwas none the less fatal. But, while her frail body wasted, herspirit remained peaceful. As the sun of her natural life sunk low inthe sky, the bright auroral precursor of another day smiled alongthe eastern verge of her spiritual horizon. There was in her heartneither doubt, nor fear, nor shrinking.
"Dear Marion!" said Anna, dropping a tear upon her white transparenthand, as she pressed it to her lips, a few weeks after the alarminghemorrhage just mentioned; "how can you look at this event socalmly?"
They had been speaking of death, and Marion had alluded to itsapproach to Anna, with a strange cheerfulness, as if she felt it tobe nothing more than a journey to another and far pleasanter landthan that wherein she now dwelt.
"Why should I look upon this change with other than tranquilfeelings?" she asked.
"Why? How can you ask such a question, sister?" returned Anna. "Tome, there has been always something in the thought of death thatmade the blood run cold about my heart."
"This," replied Marion, with one of her sweet smiles, "is becauseyour ideas of death have been, from the first, confused anderroneous. You thought of the cold and pulseless body; the palewinding-sheet; the narrow coffin, and the deep, dark grave. But, Ido not let my thoughts rest on these. To me, death involves the ideaof eternal life. I cannot think of the one without the other. Shouldthe chrysalis tremble at the coming change?--the dull worm in itscerements shrink from the moment when, ordained by nature, it mustrise into a new life, and expand its wings in the sunny air? Howmuch less cause have I to tremble and shrink back as the hourapproaches when this mortal is to put on immortality?"
"Yours is a beautiful faith," said Anna. "And its effects, as seennow that the hour from which all shrink approaches, are stronglycorroborative of its truth."
"It is beautiful because it is true," replied Marion. "There is noreal beauty that is not the form of something good and true."
"If I were as good as you, I might not shrink from death," remarkedAnna, with a transient sigh.
"I hope you are better than I am, dear; and think you are," saidMarion.
"Oh, no!" quickly returned Anna.
"Do you purpose evil in your heart?" asked Marion, seriously.
Anna seemed half surprised at the question.
"Evil! Evil! I hope not," she replied, as a shadow came over herface.
"It is an evil purpose only that should make us fear death, Anna;for therein lies the only cause of fear. Death, to those who lovethemselves and the world above every thing else, is a sad event; butto those who love God and their neighbour supremely, it is a happychange."
"That is all true," said Anna. "My reason assents to it. But, in theact of dissolution--in that mortal strife, when the soul separatesitself from the body--there is something from which my heart shrinksand trembles down fainting in my bosom. Ah! In the crossing of thatbourne from which no traveller has returned to tell us of what isbeyond, there is something that more than half appals me."
"There is much that takes away the fear you have mentioned," repliedMarion. "It is the uncertain that causes us to tremble and shrinkback. But, when we know what is before us, we prepare ourselves tomeet it. Attendant upon every one who dies, says a certain writer,are two angels, who keep his mind entirely above the thought ofdeath, and in the idea of eternal life. They remain with him throughthe whole process--protecting him from evil spirits--and receive himinto the world of spirits after his soul has fully withdrawn itselffrom the interior of the body. The last idea, active in the mind ofthe person before death, is the first idea in his mind after death,when his consciousness of life is restored; and it is some timeafter this conscious life returns before he is aware that he isdead. Around him he sees objects similar to those seen in thenatural world. There are houses and trees, streams of water andgardens. Men and women dressed in variously fashioned garments. Theywalk and converse together, as we do upon earth. When, at length, heis told that he has died, and is now in a world that is spiritualinstead of natural--that the body in which he is, is a body formedof spiritual instead of natural substances, he is in a measureaffected with surprise, and for the most part a pleasing surprise.He wonders at the grossness of his previous ideas, which limitedform and substances to material things; and now, unless he had beeninstructed during his life in the world, begins to comprehend thetruth that man is a man from the spirit, not from the body."
Anna, who had been listening intently, drew a long breath, as Marionpaused.
"Dead, and yet not know the fact!" said she, with an expression ofwonder. "It seems incredible. And all this you fully believe?"
"Yes, Anna; as entirely as I believe in the existence of the sun inthe firmament."
"If these doctrines can take away the fear of death, which so hauntsthe mind of even those who are striving to live pure lives, they areindeed a legacy of good to the world. Oh, Marion, how much I havesuffered, ever since the days of my childhood, from this dreadfulfear!"
"They do take away the fear of death," returned Marion; "becausethey remove the uncertainty which has heretofore gathered like agloomy pall over the last hours of mortality. When the soul of loveror friend passed from this world, it seemed to plunge into a darkprofound, and there came not back an echo to tell of his fate. 'Thebourne from which no traveller returns!' Oh! the painful eloquenceof that single line. But, now, we who receive the doctrine of whichI speak, can look beyond this bourne; and though the travellerreturns not, yet we know something of how he fared on his entranceinto the new country."
"Then we need not fear for you," said Anna, tenderly, "when you arecalled to pass this bourne?"
"No, sister," replied Marion, "I know in whom I have believed, and Ifeel sure that it will be well with me, so far as I have shunnedwhat is evil and sought to do good. Do not think of me as sinkinginto some gloomy profound; or awakening from my sleep of death,startled, amazed, or shocked by the sudden transition. Loving angelswill be my companions as I descend into the valley and the shadow ofdeath; and I will fear no evil. Upon the other side I will bereceived among those who have gone before, and I will scarcely feelthat there has been a change. A little while I will remain there,and then pass upward to my place in heaven."
The mother of Marion entered her room at this moment, and theconversation was suspended. But it was renewed again soon after, andthe gentle-hearted, spiritual-minded girl continued to talk of theother world as one preparing for a journey talks about the newcountry into which he is about going, and of whose geography, andthe manners and customs of whose people, he has made himselfconversant from books.
Not long did she remain on this side of the dark valley, throughwhich she was to pass. A few months wound up the story of herearthly life, and she went peacefully and confidently on her way toher eternal dwelling-place. It was a sweet, sad time, when theparting hour came, and the mother, brother, and dearly loved adoptedsister, gathered around Marion's bed to see her die. That angelswere present, each one felt; for the sphere of tranquillity thatpervaded the hearts of all was the sphere of heaven.
"God is love," said Marion, a short time before she passed away. Shewas holding the hand of her mother, and looking tenderly in herface. "How exquisite is my perception of this truth? It comes uponme with a power that subdues my spirit, yet fills it with ineffablepeace. With what a wondrous love has he regarded us! I never had hadso intense a perception of this as now."
Marion closed her eyes, and for some time lay silent, while aheavenly smile irradiated her features. Then looking up, she said,and as she spoke she took the hand of Anna and placed it within thatof her mother--
"When I am gone, let the earthly love you bore me, mother, be addedto that already felt for our dear Anna. Think of me as an angel, andof her as your child."
In spite of her effort to restrain them, tears gushed from the eyesof Mrs. Lee, and fell like rain over her cheeks. For a short timeshe bent to her dying one, and clasped her wildly to her bosom. Butthe calmness of a deeply laid trust in Providence was soon restoredto her spirit, and she said, speaking of Anna--
"Without her, how could we part with you? I do not think I couldbear it."
"I shall go before you only a little while," returned Marion, "onlya very little while. A few years--how quickly they will hurry by! Afew more days of labour, and your earthly tasks will be done. Thenwe shall meet again. And even in the days of our separation we shallnot be far removed from each other. Thought will bring usspiritually near, and affection conjoin us, even though no sense ofthe body give token of proximity. And who knows but to me will beassigned the guardianship of the dear babe given to us by Anna? Oh!if love will secure that holy duty, then it will be mine!"
A light, as if reflected from the sun of heaven, beamed from thecountenance of Marion, who closed her eyes, and, in a little while,fell off into a gentle sleep. Silently did those who loved her withmore than human tenderness--for there was in their affection a loveof goodness for its own sake--bend over and watch the face of thesweet sleeper, even until there came stealing upon them the fearthat she would not waken again in this world. And the fear was notgroundless; for thus she passed away. To her death came as a gentlemessenger, to bid her go up higher. And she obeyed the summonswithout a mortal fear.
No passionate grief at their loss raged wildly in the bosoms ofthose who suffered this great bereavement. For years, the mother andson had daily striven against selfish feelings as evil; and now,comprehending with the utmost clearness that Marion's removal was,for her, a blessed change, their hearts were thankful, even whiletears wet their cheeks. They mourned for her departure, because theywere human; they suffered pain, for ties of love the most tender hadbeen snapped asunder; they wept, because in weeping nature foundrelief. Yet, in all, peace brooded over their spirits.
When the fading, wasting form of earth which Marion's pure spirithad worn, as a garment, but now laid aside forever, was borne out,and consigned to its kindred clay, those who remained behindexperienced no new emotions of grief. To them Marion still lived.This was the old mortal body, that vailed, rather than made visible,her real beauty. Now she was clothed in a spiritual body, that wastranscendently beautiful, because it was the very form of goodaffections. To lay the useless garment aside was not, therefore, apainful task. This done, each member of the bereaved family returnedto his and her life-tasks, and, in the faithful discharge of dailyduties, found a sustaining power. But Marion was not lost to them.Ever present was she in their thought and affection, and often, indreams, she was with them,--yet, never as the suffering mortal; butas the happy, glorified immortal. Beautiful was the faith upon whichthey leaned. To them the spiritual was not a something vague andundeterminate; but a real entity. They looked beyond the grave, intothe spiritual world, as into a better country, where life wascontinued in higher perfection, and where were spiritual ultimates,as perfectly adapted to spiritual sense as are the ultimates ofcreation to the senses of the natural body.
THE END.
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