The Wedding Garment; A Tale of the Life to Come (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894. Excerpt: ... V XXIII. WE CROSS THE BORDER. As we rose to our feet, tears of great joy in our eyes, and hand in hand walked forward from that place, two turtle doves flew up from some near perch and saluted us with their soft, caressing notes. This seemed the signal for the joyous uplifting of a thousand bird voices among the neighboring trees. Farther along the path, while this sweet harmony still lingered in our ears, young lambs and fawns came forth from the groves on either hand, and looked upon us with fearless and friendly eyes. And then, as the bird song died away, a chorus of beautiful human voices grew upon our hearing, and anon we passed an assembly of lovely young virgins who stood on either side of our path, smiling upon us and singing a song of love. And then--O miracle of beauty --it seemed to us that a shower of golden rain descended upon us from on high. "The outward representative of the inward descent of the Divine blessing, for which we prayed, mayhap," I whispered, when it had ceased. We now saw that we were approaching the limit of the garden. Before us stood a house of a pearllike stone, built into the wall after the manner of 16 t park lodges, but much larger. As we drew near a man rose from a seat near by, and, throwing wide the door, courteously invited us to enter. Ascending the steps and passing through the doorway, we found ourselves in a beautiful hall or receptionroom, where, all in wonder and good pleasure, we saw to the right and to the left the familiar faces of friends. All the masters from my school and the angel mothers from my love's were there, besides Ariel and my dear comrade Alaric. A second glance showed still another, and this a stranger, --a very noble-looking man in rich flowing robes of a flaming purple. As we entered, hesit...