“Even in the valley of death?”
“‘BE NOT AFRAID! NOTHING OF THEE WILL DIE!’ Take these sweet compassionate words of Jesus, as He wept by the dying bed of Joseph, His father, into thy heart. Blessed are the homesick, Annie! for they shall get home.”
“All my life I have loved God, and His love has been over me.”
“Date not God’s love from thy nativity; look far, far back of it—to the everlasting love.”
“After death, I SHALL KNOW.”
“Death!” he repeated, “Death that deceitful word. What is it? A dream, that wakes us at the end of the night. This is the great saying that men forget—Death is Life!”
“Yet life ceases.”
“It does not, Annie. Death, is like the setting of the sun. The sun never sets; life never ceases. Certain phenomena occur which deceive us, because human vision is so feeble—we think the sun sets, and it never ceases shining; we think our friends die, and they never cease living.”
As he spoke these words Mary Damer entered, and she laid her hand on his shoulder and said, “My dear Doctor Roslyn, after death what then? we are not all good—what then?”
He looked at her wistfully and answered, “I will give you one thought, Mary, to ponder—the blessedness of heaven, is it not an eternity older than the misery of hell? Let your soul fearlessly follow where this fact leads it; for there is no limit to God’s mercy. Do you think it is His way to worry a wandering sheep eternally? Jesus Christ thought better of His father. He told us that the Great Shepherd of souls followed such sheep into the wilderness, and brought them home in His arms, or on His shoulder, and then called on the angels of heaven to rejoice because they were found. Find out what that parable means, Mary. He whose name is ‘Love’ can teach you.”