The black ship: with other allegories and parablesCharles, Elizabeth Rundle
General
The black ship: with other allegories and parables
Charles, Elizabeth Rundle
Allegories -- Juvenile literature; Parables -- Juvenile literature; Sunday school literature
Sunshine said nothing, but peeped round the shoulder of her cousin's
gray cloak, until the smile of her soft eye met the eye of a little
blue violet, which, by dint of hard living, had contrived to obtain
a secure footing in a crevice of the old rock; and a flutter of joy
passed through the blossoms and leaves of the violet, and communicated
itself to a tuft of dry short grass, which had ensconced itself behind.
The red and gray cups of some tiny moss and lichens, which had crept
into corners here and there, next drank in her kind glances, and
fancied themselves wine-cups at a feast. Here and there specks of
colour and points of life revealed themselves, and, as they looked,
expanded.
By this time, Sunshine had folded Daylight to sleep on her warm breast.
Many weeks had passed, when, one quiet afternoon, Daylight again came
that way, and glancing critically around, she murmured to Sunshine,
"Where is the old gray rock you were so sanguine about?"
Sunshine was silent: her motto being, "Not 'in word, neither in tongue;
but in deed and in truth.'"
And at length, Daylight's quiet eyes awoke to the fact, that the grassy
knoll where flowers—tiny rock-plants indeed, but still flowers—and
mosses lay dozing unawakened by her sober tread, was none other than
the rock she had known of old. And she said, meekly, "Truly I find that
one way to create beauty is to perceive it."
Then an angel, who was hovering near, on his way back from some message
of mercy (for the angels never linger till their messages are given),
sang softly, "Love veileth a multitude of sins."
And the old Rock answered in a chorus, through its moss-threads, and
lichen-cups, and leaves, and blossoms, "And under the warm veil spring
a multitude of flowers."
Wanderers and Pilgrims.
—————
A LARGE tract of country lay spread before me; upland and lowland, hill
and plain. The whole land seemed stirring with perpetual movement, all
in one direction;—from the bright hills at its commencement, to the
dark mountains at the end. Earth and sky seemed moving, as when an
enormous flight of migratory birds is passing by, but earth and sky
were really stationary. This movement was one constant tide of human
life, ceaselessly streaming across the land.
It began on a range of wooded hills, with their sunny southern slopes,
forests and flowery banks, and grassy and golden fields. Down these
slopes, joyous bands ran fast. As I looked closer, I saw the movement
was not incessant in the case of each individual; only the ceaseless
passing of the great tide of life made it seem so. Merry groups paused
on the hill-sides, and made fairy gardens, and twined leafy tents where
they would sit a little while and sing and dance. But only a little
while! No hand seemed driving them on; it appeared only an inward
irresistible instinct. Yet soon the bright groups were scattered, and
moved down again over the hills, often never joining more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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