“There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the worker of iniquity may hide,” he answered with an awful solemnity.
“O David, we come into the world weeping, and we go out fearing. It is a hard travail, both for body and soul.”
And David walked to the little table on which the Book lay, and he turned the leaves until he found the words he wanted. And Nanna watched him with eyes purified by that mysterious withdrawal into the life of the soul which comes through a great sorrow.
“It was not always so, Nanna,” he said. “Listen!
“For their sakes I made the world, and when Adam transgressed my statutes, then was decreed that now is done.
“Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full of sorrow and travail; they are but few and evil, full of perils and very painful.
“For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought immortal fruit.
But yet there is to be a restoration, Nanna.”
“I know not,” she answered wearily. “It is so far off–so far away.”
“But it is promised. It is sure.