' Perhaps I can make our Lord's
words clearer from your own experience, if you will permit me to
refer to your feelings toward the man who, whether worthy or not
has won your love. Suppose he is all you imagine, and that he
lavished on you the best treasures of his heart; would not life
at his side seem life in very truth, and life elsewhere but mere
existence?"
"Yes," said Ida, with bowed head and pale cheeks. "I begin to
understand you now. It seems to me that I could welcome sorrow,
poverty, and even death, at his side, and call life rich and full.
But as it is--oh, Mr. Eltinge, teach me your faith, lest I give
way to despair again!"
"Poor child! poor child! Don't my white hairs teach you that I
am on the threshold of the home in which 'God shall wipe away all
tears'?"
"I envy you," cried Ida, almost passionately. "Think how far I am
from that home!"
"Well, you are not far from the Divine Friend who leads to that
home, and when you come to KNOW him and his love your life will
begin to grow richer and sweeter and fuller to all eternity. This
is eternal life. It's know the God who loves us and whom we have
learned to love. It's not living on and on forever in a beautiful
heaven, any more than the earthly life you crave is living on and
on in a pleasant home such as the man of your heart might provide.
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