n, Sanctification--"

"Stop, father; the cross, indeed, with a blaze of glory, I see; but the
teachers of this or that special form of doctrine I see only catching
radiations of the light. The men who teach, and argue, and declaim, and
exorcise, are using human weapons; the great light only strikes here and
there upon some sword-point which is nearest to the cross."

"He wanders," says the Doctor to Adele, who has slipped in and stands
beside the sick-bed.

"No wandering, father; on the brink where I stand, I cannot."

"And what do you see, Reuben, my boy?" (tenderly).

Is it the presence of Adele that gives a new fervor, a kind of crazy
inspiration to his talk? "I see the light-hearted clashing cymbals; and
those who love art, kneeling under blazing temples and shrines; but the
great light touches the gold no more effulgently than the steeple of
your meeting-house, father, but no less. I see eyes of chanting girls
streaming with joy in the light; and haggard men with ponderous
foreheads working out contrivances to bridge the gap between the finite
and the infinite. Father, they are no nearer to a passage than the
radiant girls who chant and tell their beads. Angels in all shapes of
beauty flit over and amid the throngs I see,--in shape of fleecy clouds
that fan them,--in shape of brooks that murmur praise,--in shape of
leafy shadows that tremble and flicker,--in shape of birds that make a
concert of song." The birds even then were singing, the clouds floating
in his eye, the leafy shadows trailing on the chamber floor, and, from
the valley, the murmur of the brook came to his sensitive ear.

"He wanders,--he wanders!" said the poor Doctor.

Reuben turns to Adele. "Adele, kiss me!" A rosy tint ran over her face
as she stooped and kissed him with a freedom a mother might have
shown,--leaving one hand toying caressingly with his hair. "The cloud is
passing, Adele,--passing! God is Justice; Christ is Mercy. In him I
trust."

"Reuben, darling," says Adele, "come back to us!"

"Darling,--darling!" he repeated with a strange, eager, satisfied
smile,--so sweet a sound it was.

The chamber was filled with the delightful perfume of a violet bed
beneath the window. Suddenly there came from the Doctor, whose old eyes
caught sooner than any the change, a passionate outcry. "Great God! Thy
will be done!"

With that one loud, clear utterance, his firmness gave way,--for the
first time in sixty years broke utterly; and bi