Hand in hand and
heart to heart, Friend with friend, no more to part, Ne'er to grieve for
those we love, On that happy shore above."
SCARCELY had Albreda completed the
last sentence, when Hero exclaimed in astonishment:—
"Look, hither cometh Marvin—he of
whom we learned so much!"
Yes, it was he—the self-same
individual we described previously, unchanged in countenance, if we
except a more haggard expression, and a spark of restless insanity gathering
in his eye. Such a bewildered and astonished expression as came over him
as he approached is beyond the power of the pencil to express. He felt
that he stood on sacred ground. With cautious step he trod the flowery
path, and with curious gaze scanned the Eden around. When he beheld the
group of spirits engaged in conversation, and recognized them as the
same he had so scorned at his entrance into new life, his charged
overpowered him. Fain would he have hurried away, had not their united
magnetism retained him. He remained speechless, with eyes cast on the
ground. The Philosopher, well knowing his situation, and pitying him for
the errors which had placed him in such embarrassing circumstances, broke
the silence:—
Brother, you are welcome here. We
left you many years ago, newlyborn into this sphere. You were then the
slave of a false theology, and were beyond the reach of reason. You then
set out on a search for heaven. You have been unsuccessful in your
search, or you would not be here. You wronged us then, but if you are
right now,
that occurrence will be as
though it had never taken place."
Marvin's bigotry was much subdued by
his unsuccessful search; but he would rather have appeared before the
judgment-seat of his Creator than before this Society, who were
acquainted with his past history, and were able to read his thoughts.
With these impressions, combined with the contracted ideas in which he
had been educated, such generosity was as unexpected as astonishing to him.
For a moment, feelings strange and sore choked his utterance. The heart of
stone has its latent sympathies, and those whose hearts are steeled to
all charity, may be easily a affected if their character is understood.
He reached forth his hand to the Sage, exclaiming:—
"Ah, reverend father, if I had
listened to your warning voice when I entered this world—if I had sought
the source of true happiness in the internal light; had I harkened to your words, and not scorned your
sayings, rather than have
taken the words of a mythical book, as expounded by a designing
priesthood, how much more advanced would I now be! Then might I have
enjoyed groves like these, which remind me of the Tree of Life whose
leaves are for the healing of the nations—have learned from the great volumes I see around me,
fit emblems of the Book of Life. Curse me, but do not pity; I deserve it
not; make me miserable by your kindness. I have brought all on my own head and
must suffer."
"Curse you? Let not such words be
uttered to this Society. An erring brother should
never
be condemned. Nay, we have no
ill-will against you. All your
former words are forgotten; we remember
them no longer; but strive to remember the good deeds alone. It is true,
that you might have been more advanced and far superior to your present
position, had you turned immediately into the path I pointed out. But as
you believed firmly in a local heaven and the tradition of past ages, it
was better for you to have made the search, and by
ocular demonstration
become convinced of the
fallacies of your position. Blame you! certainly not. It was not
you who upbraided us, but the blear-eyed
superstition in which you were instructed. And the scenes of this life
were so new and unexpected, and you were in such an excited state that
you could not act yourself."
"I have searched long and
diligently, but have found no heaven such as the Bible describes. That
book has undone me—utterly, irretrievably ruined me forever. I would
that I had been born in a heathen land, and bad never read its soul-destroying pages!
I have inquired of every spirit I have met if they knew the locality of
heaven, and all the answer I received was a commiserating look while
they pointed around them, as much as to say what
you said long
ago—'Everywhere!' I have seen multitudes of spirits similarly engaged as
myself, yet none ever discovered the object of their search; and I left them and went
alone, beginning to doubt in my mind the theory I formerly believed sacrilege
to dispute and which I so fanatically supported. The few words you spoke to
me came up with redoubled force, and I was ready to exclaim: 'Ah! that
I had hearkened to that venerable man whom I first saw on my entrance
into this world!' This day, by some unaccountable means, I arose to a
higher plane than usual, and without a moment's warning stood before
you. Your forgiveness is worse than your combined curses. I could bear the
latter, but this softens me to tears."
"Speak not so harshly of the Bible.
It has served an important purpose. It has done much
for the advancement of mind. It has been perverted, misunderstood, and
thus made the occasion of great evils; yet all these have resulted in
ultimate good. It was your educational prejudice and bigotry which have
caused you so much suffering and misery. Because we are at one extreme
is no reason for our flying to the other. The 'golden mean' is the
centre around which all truth gathers."
"You have corrected me aright; I
acknowledge your superior spiritual powers of perception reverentially."
"Reverence not me; I am no more than
the others. We acknowledge submission to no one. Each is his own
individual sovereign, to think and act as best pleases himself, if he is
regardful of the rights of others and is measured by his worth alone. If
you are thankful express it, not by words or gestures, but by actions.
Reverence not me, but truth. You are still prejudiced on this and
kindred subjects, and your prejudice must be overcome."
"I
am prejudiced; I have not striven to
conquer my preconceived opinions. If I had sufficiently done so I might
now rest in this beautiful grove instead of going down to mingle with the low demons, one of whom
I am, with this difference,
that I know what I am. Ah! must I always suffer for
the wrongs of the past?—the contriving of plans to cheat the poor and
defraud innocence, in order to turn more gold into my coffers. The
thoughts of the many wrongs I have committed on my fellow-men are like
burning coals upon my heart.
Must I go back to the society of those
from whom I have at this moment escaped?"
"Within you I perceive the
humiliation which is the awakening of wisdom. Will you tarry with us? Here you will escape the influence of the
unworthy and dwell continually
in an atmosphere which will invigorate your spiritual strength."
"Tarry with you and enjoy all the
sublime ethereality of this abode!" exclaimed he in
astonishment. "You are but tantalizing me." "In all truth not"
He flung himself down at the feet of
the Sage, his once iron heart melted and his sins washed away in tears
of contrition. Beneath the rubbish and conventionalisms which conceal it
every human heart hath a diamond. Circumstances may dim or entirely
obliterate its light, yet sooner or later it will break through all
obstacles and shine in immortal brightness. So in this man of iron, this
man of the world, once so niggardly to the poor, so unmerciful to the
unfortunate, who used all means to acquire riches, trampling on social
law and obliterating the moral—the gem was still there.
"Arise! reverence not me by words, I repeat, but by actions meet for
repentance. You came hither
alone. Where is your companion?"
"My companion? My wife so called on
earth? She died a year since. But we loved not each other, and the wider we are asunder the better both are
pleased. I wished her saving, prudent, and laborious, but she would be
neither, and the result was
one continual broil."
"Enough, rest you here, and as one of us commence this day a new life,
advancing upward to perfection."
As Marvin entered its decorated vestibule, Leon, who had been an admiring
spectator, exclaimed:—
"Is it possible! Marvin—the rich,
purse-proud, vain, scornful, bigoted, aristocratic Marvin—here! and thus
regenerated! I almost doubt my senses."
"To one who, like mortals, has
become contracted with conventionalism it appears strange," replied the
Sage, "but to us it is an expected occurrence. This man was once an
innocent child. His natural abilities were such as would have raised him
head and shoulders above all his contemporaries, exalting him as much
in the moral and intellectual
firmament as he became in the religious
and commercial. He was trained under the iron despotism of false
conditions. He was taught that to be rich was to be great, and that
nothing but riches was worth striving for. When he approached manhood, he
saw those whom the world praised, flattered, and adored were those who
possessed a few dollars more than their neighbors: and he was deeply impressed
that, to become likewise, he must do likewise, for a long while he was
troubled with a conscience, and his intellect would react against the
drudgery be imposed on it in his strife to become rich. If you had been
placed in his circumstances, you would have done as he has done; therefore you
should not condemn. His natural abilities are as great as ours; and his
name shall yet resound through the Spirit-home. Saw you not how readily he confessed his errors after he had
fully satisfied himself of their
falsehood? He is now free from prejudice, and is like a child, which he should have been half a century ago. For
this germ, divested of its
educational and animal garb, have I accepted him; and soon you will be
proud to call him one of us."
