The Redemption of David CorsonGoss, Charles Frederic
General
The Redemption of David Corson
Goss, Charles Frederic
Society of Friends -- Fiction
"The path-finding instinct of the soul itself."
"Do you believe there is such an instinct?"
"As much as I believe the carrier pigeon has it. It is the inner light
of which you told me. You see, I remember my lesson like an obedient
child."
"Why, then, are we so often misled?" he asked, tempting her.
"Because we do not wholly trust it!" she said.
"But how can we distinguish the true light from the false, the instinct
from imagination or desire? If the soul has a hundred compasses pointing
in different ways, what compass shall lead the bewildered mariner to
know the true compass?"
"He who will know, can know."
"Are you speaking from your heart, Pepeeta?"
"From its depths."
"And have you no doubts that what you say is true?"
"None, for I learned it from a teacher whom I trust, and have justified
it by my own experience."
"And now the teacher must sit at the feet of the pupil! Oh! beautiful
instructress, keep your faith firm for my sake! I have dark hours
through which I have to pass and often lose my way. The restoration of
my spiritual vision is but slow. How often am I bewildered and lost! My
thoughts brood and brood within me!"
"Put them away," she said, cheerily. "We live by faith and not by sight.
We need not be concerned with the distant future. Let us live in this
dear, divine moment. I am here. You are here! We are together; our
hands touch; our eyes meet; our hearts are one; we love! Let us only be
true to our best selves, and to the light that shines within! Oh! I have
learned so much in these few months, among these people of peace, David!
They know the way of life! We need go no farther to seek it. It lies
before us. Let us follow it!"
"Angel of goodness," he exclaimed, clasping her hand, "it must be that
supreme Love reigns over all the folly and madness of life, or to such a
one as I, a gift so good and beautiful would never have been given!"
She pressed his hand for response, for her lips quivered and her heart
was too full for words.
And now, through the ghastly light which magnified his size portentously
and painted him with grotesque and terrible colors, the child
reappeared, begrimed with smoke and wild with the transports of a power
so vast and an accomplishment so wonderful.
The three figures stood in the bright illumination, fascinated by the
spectacle. The flames, as if satisfied with destruction, had died down,
and fifty great beds of glowing embers lay spread out before them, like
a sort of terrestrial constellation.
The wind, which had been awakened and excited to madness as it rushed in
from the great halls of the forest to fan the fires, now that it was no
longer needed, ceased to blow and sank into silence and repose. Little
birds, returning to their roosts, complained mournfully that their
dreams had been disturbed, and a great owl from the top of a lofty elm
hooted his rage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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