At many places their Bible speaks of a place where the departed go after death, beyond the Zik life. These worshipers are linked to their God by the same kind of love-chords that bind Christians to their Master in our world.
You cannot imagine my interest and my joy as I learned that the Zikites are looking forward to a period of time corresponding to our Millennium. Their religious literature is full of references to this coming golden age, and many poetical compositions point to it with rapturous melody of language.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Diamond World.
When one reads of the size and population of our world he is thrilled with the idea of its greatness. But when he travels over land and sea, visiting the many points of interest, he is impressed four-fold with the magnitude of the Earth and the vast numbers that populate it.
It is infinitely more so in regard to the many suns and planets that compose the universe. I had read of the distances of space and of the number of celestial bodies that are scattered throughout these measureless expanses, and I was profoundly impressed with the vastness of created things and the eternal revolutions of the countless spheres. But when I took my continued flight away from the solar system of Sirius and was privileged to get a passing glimpse of many other solar systems, I was overawed a thousand-fold at the myriad motions of the myriad worlds, each serving its little part through the passing cycles to carry out the plan of the Infinite Mind.
My next pause was at the glorious constellation of Orion on the star Rigel. This brilliant orb is not inhabited, but more than one-half of the worlds revolving around it sustain human life.
After I had taken a passing glimpse of a few worlds belonging to this system, I proceeded to visit another world that revolves around Rigel at a distance of sixteen hundred million miles. It is a trifle larger than our world and is inhabited by only about one-tenth as many people.
This is the brightest planet I had ever seen, for it dazzled and sparkled like pearls of ice in the sun, and yet it gave forth no light of its own.