Oh, what a kingdom! foretold by ages, begun on earth in that little rocky stable that December night in Bethlehem. And it is secure; it cannot be moved, its white pillers are enthroned in the secret chambers of the soul.
And how strong and changeless his prime ministers, Love, Justice and Mercy, are, who carry his messages and do his will. How quiet and peaceable and yet how strong, makin’ no fuss and show; but what majesty is writ down on their forwards as they mirror the will of their Master. How firm they stand, jest as they’ve stood for ages; no wobblin’, no turnin’ this way and that to git adherents and followers. No, calm and mighty and holy they stand before that sacred throne jest as they did at Jerusalem before Herod and Pilate.
Oh, how many emotions I did have as I stood in that sacred spot, twice as many at least as I ever had in the same length of time in any other place. I didn’t want to speak, I didn’t want to see even my dear Josiah. No, I wanted to be silent, to think, to meditate, to pray “Thy kingdom come.” Nigh by in the same grotto is what they call the tomb of a relation of ourn on both sides. Yes, they say Adam, our grandpa (removed) wuz buried here. I felt considerable sceptical about that, but Josiah beheld it complacently, and I hearn him say to Tommy:
“Yes, here Adam lays, poor creeter!” And sez Josiah, puttin’ down his cane kinder hard, “Oh, what a difference it would have made to Jonesville and the world at large if Adam had put his foot right down just as I put my cane to-day, and not let his pardner eat that apple, nor tease him into eatin’ it, too.”
And Tommy looked at him in wonder, “Did the apple make him sick, grandpa?”
“Yes, Tommy, it made him sick as death, sin-sick, and he knowed it would.”
“Well, then what made him eat it, grandpa?”
And Josiah said, “These things are too deep for you to understand now; when you git a little older grandpa will explain ’em all out to you.”
And Arvilly sez, “I’d love to be there when you explained it, Josiah Allen. Layin’ the blame onto the wimmen, jest as men do from Adam and Alpha to Omega.”