"And, as they worked, the Spirit of Love came among them and the workers
began to sing at their tasks. Each one did not only his own work but
helped his neighbour with his. They became eager to do all they could
instead of as little as they might and still escape censure, and the
face of each one was shining with joy.
"When I awoke I was saying aloud: 'Each to his own work!' For some time
I did not know it was only a dream, but gradually the meaning of it
became clear. Edith, did you ever stop to think that the millennium
could be brought about in less than one hour, if each did his own work
well and in a spirit of love? It is we ourselves who are out of
harmony, not things as they are, and, having once attained harmony,
everything will become right.
[Sidenote: Joy through Service]
"And so, beloved, my love for you has been as a great light in my soul.
I need no more than to give it without ceasing, and to renew, through
human service, not only my love for you, but the love for all which
leads to brotherhood.
"I have come to see that joy comes through what we give, not through
what we take; happiness through serving, not through being served; and
peace through labour, not rest.
"I thought, at first, that I loved you, but it seems to have grown a
hundred-fold. No barriers may divide us from one another, nor earth with
all its seas sunder us apart, for through love has come union, not only
with you but the whole world.
"And so, good-night--heart of my heart, life of my life, and soul of my
soul.
"A. M."
* * * * *
"DEAR AND EVER DEARER:
"Your letter lies against my heart where I feel it with every rising
breath. I, too, have longed for you, a thousand times, and in a thousand
ways.
"Always as the tide of the night turns, I wake and think of you. When
through the darkness comes no response, I smile to myself, knowing you
are asleep, then I sleep also. But sometimes, in an instant, the
darkness becomes alive and throbs with eager messages, as love surges
from my heart to yours and from yours to mine.
[Sidenote: The Open Door]
"I, too, have come into the way of service, of brotherhood. It may seem
a strange thing to write, or even to say, but you, who have never failed
to understand me, will understand this. I never cared so much for my
husband as I do now; I was never less conscious of myself, never more
eager to ask nothing and give all. And, through this change in me has
come about a change in him. Instead of each of us selfishly demanding
what we conceive to be our 'rights,' each strives unselfishly to please
the other--to see who can give the most.
"You have taken nothing away that belongs to anyone else, dear--the love
I bear you is yours alone, but, through it, I have some way more to
give; he is the richer, because of you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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