Now, all this comes
from what is false. Death is not the crowning evil of our lives; but
the door through which we pass, tranquilly, into that eternal world,
which is our destined home. I hold in my thought a different picture
of Death from that which affrighted me in childhood. The form is one
of angelic beauty, and the countenance full of love. I know, that
when I pass along the dark and narrow way that leads from this outer
world of nature, to the inner world from which it has existence,
that my hand will rest firmly in that of an angel, commissioned of
God to guide my peaceful footsteps. Is not that a better faith?"
"Yes, a better and a truer," said I.
"It is not the death passage that we need fear. That has in it no
intrinsic evil. It is the sleep of mortality, and the rest is sweet
to all. If we give place to fear, let it be for that state beyond
the bourne, which will be unhappy in the degree that we are lovers
of self and the world--that is, lovers of evil instead of good. As
the tree falls, so it lies, Doctor. As our quality is at death, so
will it remain to all eternity.
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