“‘Now, Annie, dear,’ I said, ‘do you think the sculptor hated that rough block of marble when he gave it so many hard knocks?’
“‘Oh, no,’ said she, ‘he loved it; and every blow he gave showed his love for it.’
Jesus, His Work Accomplished, Ascends Into Heaven
And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.—And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.—St. Luke xxiv: 50, 51; Acts i: 10, 11.
NOTE BY THE ARTIST
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany,” passing through the streets of the city, thronged with busy crowds, who knew not that Jesus of Nazareth passed by. Over the ridge of Olivet there is a path leading to Bethany, and following this the traveller reaches a secluded spot on the further slope of the hill, and within sight of the home that Jesus had known and loved; and he pauses in reverence, for these silent stones may have witnessed the crowning scene of the world’s Redemption—Jesus, son of God and son of Man, received up to Heaven, a cloud of adoring angels concealing from mortal gaze his entrance through the everlasting doors into the presence of the Father.
79
“‘And so, my dear child,’ said I, ‘does God love us. And the trials which he sends on us are the proofs of his love. As the sculptor was trying to make this image of an angel out of the marble block, by every blow he gave it, so God, by all the afflictions of this life, is fitting us to be like the angels in the heavenly kingdom.’