The Land of Darkness: Along with Some Further Chapters in the Experiences of the Little PilgrimOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
General
The Land of Darkness: Along with Some Further Chapters in the Experiences of the Little Pilgrim
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Future life -- Fiction; Purgatory -- Fiction
The watcher loosed herself from her companion’s clasp, and stood upright
upon the edge of the cliff, clasping her hands together and saying low,
as to herself, Father, Father! as one who cannot refrain from that
appeal, but who knows the Father loves best, and that to intercede is
vain. And longing was in her face and joy. For it was he; and she knew
that he could not now fail, but would reach to the celestial country and
to the shining of the sun: yet that it was not hers to help him, nor any
man’s, nor angel’s. But the little pilgrim was ignorant, not having
been taught. And she committed herself to those depths, though she
feared them, and though she knew not what she could do. And once more
the dense air closed over her, and the vacancy swallowed her up, and
when she reached the rocks below, there lay something at her feet which
she felt to be a man; but she could not see him nor touch him, and when
she tried to speak, her voice died away in her throat, and made no
sound. Whether it was the wind that caught it, and swept it quite away,
or that the well of that depth profound sucked every note upward, or
whether because it was not permitted that either man or angel should
come out of their sphere, or help be given which was forbidden, the
little pilgrim knew not: for never had it been said to her that she
should stand aside where need was. And surprise which was stronger than
the icy wind, and for a moment a great dismay, took hold upon her, for
she understood not how it was that the bond of silence should bind her,
and that she should be unable to put forth her hand to help him whom she
heard moaning and murmuring, but could not see. And scarcely could her
feet keep hold of the awful rock, or her form resist the upward sweep of
the wind; but though he saw her not nor she him, yet could not she leave
him in his weakness and misery, saying to herself that even if she could
do nothing, it must be well that a little love should be near.
Then she heard him speak again, crouching under the rock at her feet,
and he said faintly to himself, ‘That was no dream. In the land of
darkness there are no dreams nor voices that speak within us. On the
earth they were never silent struggling and crying; but there--all blank
and still. Therefore it was no dream. It was One who came and looked me
in the face: and love was in His eyes. I have not seen love, oh, for so
long. But it was no dream. If God is a dream I know not, but love I
know. And He said to me, “Arise and go.” But to whom must I go? The
words are words that once I knew, and the face I knew. But to whom, to
whom?’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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