"From Eternal Life no death can come,"--continued the Voice--"from
Eternal Love flows Eternal Joy. Change there is,--change there must be
to higher forms and higher planes,--but Life and Love remain as they
are, indestructible--'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!'"
I bent my face over the rose against my breast,--its perfume was
deliciously soft and penetrating, and half unconsciously I kissed its
velvet petals. As I did this a swift and dazzling radiance poured
shower-like through the air, and again I heard mysterious chords of
rhythmic melody rising and falling like distant waves of the sea. The
grave, tender Voice spoke once again:
"Rise and go hence!" it said, in tones of thrilling gentleness--"Keep
the gift God sends thee!--take that which is thine! Meet that which
hath sought thee sorrowing for many centuries! Turn not aside again,
neither by thine own will nor by the will of others, lest old errors
prevail! Pass from vision into waking!--from night to day!--from
seeming death to life!--from loneliness to love!--and keep within thy
heart the message of a Dream!"
The light beating about me like curved wings slowly paled and as slowly
vanished--yet I felt that I must still kneel and wait. This atmosphere
of awe and trembling gradually passed away,--and then, rising as I
thought, and holding the mystic rose with one hand still against my
breast, I turned to feel my way through the darkness which now
encompassed me. As I did this my other hand was caught by someone in a
warm, eager clasp, and I was guided along with an infinitely tender yet
masterful touch which I had no hesitation in obeying. Step by step I
moved with a strange sense of happy reliance on my unseen
companion--darkness or distance had no terrors for me. And as I Went
onward with my hand held firmly in that close yet gentle grasp, my
thoughts became as it were suddenly cleared into a heaven of
comprehension--I looked back upon years of work spread out like an arid
desert uncheered by any spring of sweet water--and I saw all that my
life had lacked--all to which I had unconsciously pressed forward
longingly without any distinct recognition of my own aims, and only
trusting to the infinite powers of God and Nature to amend my
incompleteness by the perfection of the everlasting Whole. And now--had
the answer come? At any rate, I felt I was no longer alone. Someone who
seemed the natural other half of myself was beside me in the shadows of
sleep--I could have spoken, but would not, for fear of breaking the
charm.
And so I went on and on, caring little how long the journey might be,
and even vaguely wishing it might continue for ever,--when presently a
faint light began to peer through the gloom--I saw a glimmer of blue
and grey, then white, then rose-colour--and I awoke--to find nothing of
a visionary character about me unless perhaps a shaft of early morning
sunshine streaming through the port-hole of my cabin could be called a
reflex of the mystic glory which had surrounded me in sleep. I then
remembered where I was,--yet I was so convinced of the reality of what
I had seen and heard that I looked about me everywhere for that lovely
crimson rose I had brought away with me from Dreamland--for I could
actually feel its stem still between my fingers. It was not to be
seen--but there was delicate fragrance on the air as if it were
blooming near me--a fragrance so fine that nothing could describe its
subtly pervading odour. Every word spoken by the Voice of my dream was
vividly impressed on my brain, and more vivid still was the
recollection of the hand that had clasped mine and led me out of sleep
to waking. I was conscious of its warmth yet,--and I was troubled, even
while I was soothed, by the memory of the lingering caress with which
it had been at last withdrawn. And I wondered as I lay for a few
moments in my bed inert, and thinking of all that had chanced to me in
the night, whether the long earnest patience of my soul, ever turned as
it had been for years towards the attainment of a love higher than all
earthly attraction, was now about to be recompensed? I knew, and had
always known, that whatsoever we strongly WILL to possess comes to us
in due season; and that steadily resolved prayers are always granted;
the only drawback to the exertion of this power is the doubt as to
whether the thing we desire so ardently will work us good or ill. For
there is no question but that what we seek we shall find. I had sought
long and unwearyingly for the clue to the secret of life imperishable
and love eternal,--was the mystery about to be unveiled? I could not
tell--and I dare not humour the mere thought too long. Shaking my mind
free from the web of marvel and perplexity in which it had been caught
by the visions of the night, I placed myself in a passively receptive
attitude--demanding nothing, fearing nothing, hoping nothing--but
simply content with actual Life, feeling Life to be the outcome and
expression of perfect Love.