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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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" There are also some , my brother , whom I have not yet soothed to deep repose . O ! that we might tarry awhile 1 " " We may not tarry , for there is need of us afar . Yet one thing may we do . Let us give of our power to another , that she may minister till we return . " So they called upon Conscience , and charged her to descend with the shadows of night , and to visit the abodes of men . The angel of Woe gave her of the waters of his urn , and said unto his sister " Give her thy lyre , for what other music needest thou than thine own songs ? What other me-9
lody is so sweet V And when they had charged their messenger to await them at the eastern gate when the morning should open it unto them , they spread their wings and hastened down the west . Their messenger gazed after them afar : and when she marked the dim majesty of the elder spirit , and the mild beauty of his sister , she bent her head and silently went her way .
" What hast thou beheld ? " said the angels to their messenger , when the portals of light were unclosed . " Are the healing waters spent ? Hath the lyre been tuneful ?" " The waters are not spent , " she replied ; " for mine own tears have made this urn to overflow . The lyre was tuned in Paradise ; else my trembling hand had jarred its strings . " " Alas ! " cried the younger spirit , " where then hast thou ministered ?"
" When the evening star appeared , I descended among the shadows , where I heard a voice calling to me from afar . It came from a space where raging fires were kindled by the hands of priests . Night hovered above , but the flames forbade her approach , and I could not abide longer beneath her wings . He who appealed unto me stood chained amidst the fires which already preyed upon him . I swept the strings of the lyre , and smiles overspread his face . Even while the melody waxed sweeter , the dark-eyed spirit of the tombs came and bore him away asleep . "
The young angel smiled as she said , " He hearkeneth now to nobler harmonies than ours ! But was there none other amidst the flames to whom thou couldst minister ?" « ' Alas ! there was one who lied through fear . He was led back to his cell , whither I followed him . I shed the waters into his soul , and the bitterness thereof tormented him more than any scorching flames which could have consumed his body . Yet must I visit him nightly till he dies . " * ' Droop not thy wings because of his anguish , my sister , " said the elder spirit . ' * He shall yet be thine when he is made pure for thy presence . "
" I have been , " said the messenger , " beside the couch of the dying , in the palace , and beneath the lowly roof . I have shed into one departing soul the burning tears of the slave , and soothed the spirit of another with the voices of grateful hearts . 1 have made the chamber of one rich man echo with the cries of the oppressed , and have surrounded the pillow of another with the fatherless who called him parent . Kings have sought to hide themselves as I drew nigh , while the eye of the mourner hath lighted up at my approach . The slumbers of some have I hallowed with music , while they knew not 1 was at hand ; and others have I startled with visions , who guessed not whence they came . I am filled with awe at mine own power . " " It shall increase , " said the elder spirit , *• while mine own waneth .
Untitled Article
24 A Parable .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/24/
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