May not God find ways to gather up the fragments of wasted lives and
reconstitute them in His own image, as this great artist reconstructed
the window:
In a certain old town was a great cathedral in which was a
wondrous stained-glass window. Its fame had gone abroad over
the land. From miles around people pilgrimaged to gaze upon
the splendor of this masterpiece of art. One day there came a
great storm. The violence of the tempest forced in the window,
and it crashed to the marble floor, shattered into a hundred
pieces. Great was the grief of the people at the catastrophe
which had suddenly bereft the town of its proudest work of art.
They gathered up the fragments, huddled them in a box, and
carried them to the cellar of the church. One day there came
along a stranger, and craved permission to see the beautiful
window. They told him of its fate. He asked what they had done
with the fragments. And they took him to the vault and showed
him the broken morsels of glass. “Would you mind giving these
to me?” said the stranger. “Take them along,” was the reply;
“they are no longer of any use to us.” And the visitor carefully
lifted the box and carried it away in his arms. Weeks passed
by; then one day there came an invitation to the custodians
of the cathedral. It was from a famous artist, noted for his
master-skill in glass-craft. It summoned them to his study to
inspect a stained-glass window, the work of his genius. Ushering
them into his studio, he stood them before a great veil of
canvas. At the touch of his hand upon a cord the canvas dropt.
And there before their astonished gaze shone a stained-glass
window surpassing in beauty all their eyes had ever beheld. As
they gazed entranced upon its rich tints, wondrous pattern, and
cunning workmanship, the artist turned and said: “This window I
have wrought from the fragments of your shattered one, and it
is now ready to be replaced.” Once more a great window shed its
beauteous light into the dim aisles of the old cathedral. But
the splendor of the new far surpassed the glory of the old, and
the fame of its strange fashioning filled the land.--_Grace
and Truth._
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