"She became silent and I received an impression that she did not wish me
to speak, so we both sat in the silence for about ten minutes, when the
room became illuminated and she herself seemed to be the brightest
object in it. I never saw a room so bright as that in my life. After a
few minutes everything in the room appeared dark except the wall at the
further end; and where it was light there seemed to be a white covering
such as is used for magic lantern pictures. I was looking at it when
there appeared a picture which covered the whole cloth. It represented
men and women of all tribes and nations bending beneath heavy loads of
bondage. I observed their bondages were not all the same. There was a
difference in the kind of bondages the men were bound with to those that
held women in slavery. Then I saw that the men had some bondages the
same as the women had. I observed the bondages of the women were not all
the same. For instance, the American's woman's bondage in some respects
was different from that of the Japanese woman, and the bondages of the
Hindu woman were not the same as that of the Chinese woman. It was a sad
sight. As they were all presented, they appeared to be living, moving
figures.
"There were a few Hindu men and women who were free, going among them
trying to lift them out of bondage, but it was very hard, for they
seemed to love being in bondage. Only those who were tired of their
bondages were helped by the workers. Wavernee kept her eyes intently on
the picture all the time, and when she turned her face towards me the
scene disappeared and the whole room became dark. In about ten minutes
the whole room was again illuminated and I never saw Wavernee look so
much like the embodiment of perfect love as she did then. She seemed as
if she had been touched with a live coal from off the altar, the sacred
fire was so bright in her eyes. The atmosphere was one of sacred
blissful love. Whatever there was of lukewarmness or indifference in me
in regard to humanity was licked up, as it were, by a fiery flame of
love. I felt as if my whole nature had become white-heat with love. The
most miserable creature seemed dear and sweet to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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