Fantasy fiction; Heaven -- Fiction; Hell -- Fiction; Unfinished books
She was still laughing when Jesus joined us. She ran to meet Him,
happy, light-hearted, and beautiful as summer sunlight. Together they
truly made a most wonderful picture of beauty and perfection, though
she was slightly the taller of the two.
He took the seat I offered Him and she arranged it most comfortably
with cushions, still laughing at what she termed my “very common
conceit.”
* * * * *
_A page of MS. here omitted_
* * * * *
Tea being over, we prepared to go; but before going our hostess
conducted all of us upstairs to a room leading from her own. It was
filled with pink and white roses, and a carpet made of silken rose
petals covered the floor. The windows were closed, but inside the room
pure lights of many lovely colours interwoven were playing from wall to
wall, from ceiling to floor. These made sweet music as they touched and
intermingled like harp-strings played by a passing breeze, and around
the bed, made from one giant hollowed pearl, such as the world ne’er
saw nor dreamt of, garlands of roses fell, and lily petals formed the
counterpane. In the centre of all this pure loveliness lay the infant
spirit, with a beauty words cannot paint. The smile of death is frozen
and cold, but here was its facsimile in life and warmth. One hand
lay resting on the counterpane and one upon the pillow, resting the
sleepy head. The soft glow of health flushed either cheek, and dyed the
parting lips; yet over all there was a nameless majesty and rest, a
sleeping spirit begotten of the hard seeds of earth.
Suddenly Saint Ursula moved to where Jesus stood beside the bed and put
her arm through His.
“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of Heaven,” she said softly.
“Was this a little child?” I asked at length.
“Oh, no,” replied the mother, kneeling down and pressing the soft arm
to her lips. “This was a full-grown man, whose life had been spent in
one long battle with sin and self. This is not a little human child,
but a spirit child born from the fruit seeds of a lifetime. Soon the
happy childhood of the spirit will begin, for on earth there is no
such thing. It is for the most part nothing but striving there to get
together the essential seeds to form a spirit.”
“You do not devote much time to these young children,” I observed as we
came out together later.
She smiled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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