| By Rebecca Springer Originally titled "Intra Muros" Published 1922 |
Within the
Gates Meeting the Master "Indeed, yes!" I answered eagerly; so we set forth. We soon reached her lovely home and found her waiting at the entrance as though expecting us. After a cordial greeting to our friend, my brother said, "I will leave you together for that long talk for which I know you are both eager, and will go my way to other duties. I will find you later on at home." After he had gone, my friend took me over to her lovely home, showing me with great pleasure the rooms prepared for each beloved member of her earthly household still to come. Returning down the broad stairway, we entered a very large music room with broad walkways, supported by marble columns, running along three sides of it, on a level with the second floor. In this gallery were a number of musical instruments, harps, viols, and some unlike any I had ever seen elsewhere. "My daughter," my friend explained, "who left us in early childhood has received a fine musical training here, and is fond of gathering in her young friends and giving us a musical treat quite often." We re-entered from this room the reception hall opening upon the front veranda and outer steps. Here Mrs. Wickham drew me to a seat beside her and said, "Now tell me everything of the dear home and friends." Holding each other's hands as we talked, she questioning, I answering, things too sacred to be repeated here were dwelt upon for hours. At last she said, rising hastily, "I will leave you for a little while, nay, you must not go," as I would have arisen. "There is much yet to be said; wait here till I return." I had already learned not to question the judgement of wiser friends and yielded to her will. As she passed through the doorway to the inner house, I saw a stranger at the front entrance and arose to meet him. He was tall and commanding in form, with a face of indescribable sweetness and beauty. Where had I seen him before? Surely I had not met him since I came. "Ah, now I know," I thought, "it is St. John the beloved disciple." He had been pointed out to me one morning by the riverside. "Peace be unto this house," was his salutation as he entered. How his voice stirred and thrilled me! No wonder the Master loved him, with that voice and that face! "Enter. Thou art a welcome guest. Enter and I will call the mistress," I said as I approached to bid him welcome. "Nay, call her not. She knows that I am here; she will return," he said. "Sit thou a while beside me," he continued as he saw that I still stood after I had seen him seated. He arose and led me to a seat near him, and like a little child I did as I was bidden, still always watching the wonderful face before me. "You have but lately come?" he asked. "Yes, I am here but for a short time. So short that I know not how to reckon time as you count it here," I answered. "Oh, that matters little," he said with a gentle smile. "Many cling always to the old reckoning and the Earth language. How does the change impress you? How do you find life here?" "Oh," I said "if they could only know! I never fully understood till now the meaning of the sublime passage, 'eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' It is indeed past human conception," I spoke with deep feeling. "For them that love Him? Do you believe that all Christians truly love Him?" he asked. "Do you think they love the Father for the gift of the Son, and the Son because of the Father's love and mercy? Or is their worship ofttimes that of duty rather than love?" He spoke gently and reflectively. "Oh," I said, "you who well knew the beloved Master, who were so loved by Him, how can you doubt the love that He must inspire in all hearts who seek to know Him?" A radiant glow overspread the wonderful face, which he lifted looking directly at me, the mist rolled away from before my eyes, and I knew Him! With a low cry of adoration, I threw myself before His feet, bathing them with happy tears. He gently stroked my bowed head for a moment, then rising, lifted me to His side. "My Savior, my King!" I whispered, clinging closely to Him. "Yes, and elder brother and friend," He added, wiping away tenderly the tears stealing from beneath my closed eyelids. "Yes, yes, the chiefest among ten thousand and the One altogether lovely," again I whispered. "Ah, now you begin to meet the conditions of the new life! Like many another, the changing of faith to sight with you has engendered a little shrinking. That is all wrong. Have you forgotten the promise, 'I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am ye may be also?' If you loved Me when you could not see Me except by faith, love me more now when we have really become co-heirs of the Father. Come to me with all that perplexes or gladdens you. Come to the elder brother always waiting to receive you with joy."
Then He drew me
to a seat and conversed with me long and earnestly, unfolding many of
the mysteries of the divine life. I hung upon His words; I drank in
every tone of His voice; I watched eagerly upon every line of His
beloved face; and I was exalted, uplifted, reborn, beyond the power of
words to express. At length, with a divine smile He arose. "We will
often
meet," He said, and I, bending over, pressed my lips reverently to the
hand that still clasped my own. Then, laying His hands a moment in
blessing upon my bestowed head, He passed noiselessly and swiftly from
the house. |
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