“Do you think I have been with you all these weeks, in and out, by day and night, and have not known that? Do you forget how you showed it in those days when you seemed to be slipping away from life, and only the eternal promises of everlasting love and help could reach you to help and strengthen you? You did not talk, but you made us talk to you, and your eyes gave their answer. You found then that it was not a beautiful philosophy, but a living Saviour you wanted; not an abstraction representing an ideal purity, but a Man, the one Incarnate Son of God, to whom you must cling in the darkness of the night. Ah! Eustace, it was then that you truly turned back to the Father’s house; and I know that the Father came out to meet you, and to bring you into His safe shelter. I knew He would--oh! I think I have known that for a long time now; but the joy of the certainty is so wonderful and beautiful----” Her voice broke, and she turned her head away for a moment, but he said softly-- “The angels of God rejoicing over one sinner that repenteth? Is that it, Bride? For you are a veritable angel upon earth!” “Ah no!” she answered quickly, “do not say that--do not think it. Holy and blessed as the angels of God are, we have yet a higher vocation--a higher calling to live up to. It is a human body, not an angelic body, that our Lord took and sanctified to all eternity. It is for fallen human creatures, not for the angels, that He came down to die. And it is glorified human beings, changed into His glorious likeness, who are called to live and reign with Him in glory unspeakable. I never want to be an angel. Ours is a more truly blessed and glorious calling. To be His at His coming. To hear His voice, and be caught up to meet Him in the air. To be ever with the Lord--kings and priests for ever and ever! O Eustace! we cannot conceive of such a thing yet; but the day _will_ come when the kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever!”