“I have heard of shades beyond the Styx, but counted them to be only shadows. Dost thou affirm that they are verily ourselves?”
“Yea! of a surety! When thou goest out of thy tent or house, art thou not the same? Behold the unseen country is all about us, and peopled with those who have laid off the flesh. As our garments wax old and are laid aside for those more befitting, so are we clothed with such bodies as belong to the place of our sojourn.”
“Unto what canst thou liken them?”
“Our habitations beyond the Styx, as thou sayest, are such as we are now building by our thoughts, desires, and loves. Even though unseen, we are uprearing and putting them on day by day.”
“In what manner art thou persuaded of these things?”
“The Voice within giveth its testimony concerning them, and moreover, those that are yonder have sent back messages. It cometh to pass also that certain who are still with us have their inner sight opened, so that those who are invisible become manifest. If thou wouldst know of that whereof I speak, open thy soul and become like a little child, and the silent voice within will yield some growing assurance.”
“I believe that I already hear its still, sweet utterance! Unto this day it hath been asleep, but thou hast aroused it, and it will live!”
“Thou givest good tidings! behold the spirit of the Christ—the son of God—in thee is coming into manifestation!”
“O thou greater than a Hebrew! thou hast discovered me to myself. I joyfully accept thy teaching and prophecy, for of a truth thou hast a wisdom beyond that of earth!”
The master of the Salapiæ always had been brave and manly, but now there was a light in his eye and a joy in his heart which was unwonted, even when no peril threatened. It was not so much the words which Serenus had spoken, but the spirit and love which filled him, and which he radiated, that had taken hold of the Roman.