With hands outstretched
he turned to Manuel,--and lo!--the boy was moving away from him--
moving slowly but resolutely up towards the Cross! Breathless,
speechless, the aged Felix watched him with straining uplifted
eyes,--and as he watched, saw his garments grow white and
glistening, and a great light began to shine about him--till
reaching the foot of the Cross He turned,--and then--He was no more
a child! All the glory of the "Vision Beautiful" shone full upon the
dying body and escaping soul of Christ's faithful servant!--the
Divine Head crowned with thorns!--the Divine arms stretched out
against the beams of the great Cross!--the Divine look of love and
welcome!--and with a loud cry of ecstasy Felix Bonpre extended his
trembling hands.
"Master! Master!" he murmured. "Did not my heart burn within me when
Thou didst talk with me by the way!"
Yearning towards that Mystic Glory he clasped his hands, and in the
splendour of the dream, and through the pulsations of the solemn
music he heard a Voice--the Voice of his child companion Manuel, but
a Voice grown full of Divine authority while yet possessing all
human tenderness.
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things!
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"
And at that Voice--and in the inexplicable beauty of that Look of
Love, Felix Bonpre, "Prince of the Roman Church," whose faithfulness
Rome called in question, gave up his mortal life,--and with a
trembling sigh of death and delight intermingled, fell face forward
at the foot of the Cross, where the radiance of his Master's
Presence shone like the sun in heaven! And as he passed from death
to life, the Vision faded--the light grew dim,--the arches of the
heavenly temple not made with hands melted away and rolled up like
clouds of the night dispersing into space--the last dazzling Angel
face, the last branch of Heavenly flowers--vanished--and the music
of the spheres died into silence.
Pages:
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922