Christian fiction; Wingfold, Thomas (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
“With sweet content my eyes went in and out of those manifold radiant
lines, feeling, though they were but parts of his dress, yet they were
of himself; for I knew the form to be that of the heavenly Father,
but felt no trembling fear, no sense of painful awe--only a deep, deep
worshipping, an unutterable love and confidence. 'Oh Father!' I said,
not aloud, but low into the folds of his garment. Scarcely had I
breathed the words, when 'My child!' came whispered, and I knew his head
was bent toward me, and I felt his arms close round my shoulders, and
the folds of his garment enwrap me, and with a soft sweep, fall behind
me to the ground. Delight held me still for a while, and then I looked
up to seek his face; but I could not see past his breast. His shoulders
rose far above my upreaching hands. I clasped them together, and face
and hands rested near his heart, for my head came not much above his
waist.
“And now came the most wonderful part of my dream. As I thus rested
against his heart, _I seemed to see into it_; and mine was filled with
loving wonder, and an utterly blessed feeling of home, to the very core.
I was _at home_--with my Father! I looked, as it seemed, into a space
illimitable and fathomless, and yet a warm light as from a hearth-fire
shone and played in ruddy glow, as upon confining walls. And I saw,
there gathered, all human hearts. I saw them--yet I saw no forms; they
_were_ there--and yet they _would be_ there. To my waking reason, the
words sound like nonsense, and perplex me; but the thing did not perplex
me at all. With light beyond that of faith, for it was of absolute
certainty, clear as bodily vision, but of a different nature, I saw
them. But this part of my dream, the most lovely of all, I can find no
words to describe; nor can I even recall to my own mind the half of what
I felt. I only know that something was given me then, some spiritual
apprehension, to be again withdrawn, but to be given to us all, I
believe, some day, out of his infinite love, and withdrawn no more.
Every heart that had ever ached, or longed, or wandered, I knew was
there, folded warm and soft, safe and glad. And it seemed in my dream
that to know this was the crown of all my bliss--yes, even more than
to be myself in my Father's arms. Awake, the thought of multitude had
always oppressed my mind; it did not then. From the comfort and joy it
gave me to see them there, I seemed then first to know how my own heart
had ached for them.
“Then tears began to run from my eyes--but easily, with no pain of the
world in them. They flowed like a gentle stream--_into the heart of
God_, whose depths were open to my gaze. The blessedness of those tears
was beyond words. It was all true then! That heart was our home!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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