27. We Shall Know

We Shall Know

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.—Columbus believed that a new world could be discovered by sailing westward. Before he discovered America, no one, perhaps, shared his belief. In fact, they looked upon him as being unbalanced in mind. But something in his soul led him to feel and believe that there was an unknown country beyond the vast Atlantic. One time it is said he found fruits on the shore of western Europe, washed there by the Atlantic’s waves, entirely different from any fruit produced in Europe. His belief in a world beyond the watery horizon led him at last to launch out on a vast unknown sea, to find a land that white men had perhaps never seen. With strange stars above him, and strange, wild seas around him, storms without and mutinies on board, none of his crew hopeful but himself, that wonderful man, encouraged, perhaps, by the mysterious voice of an unseen one, said to have been heard on the voyage encouraging him forward, kept the prow of his bark pointed westward, till the lights of Indian fires on the shore of the new world proved to him that his marvelous faith in the existence of the unseen world to the west was not in vain. Humboldt tells us that Columbus said that he heard a voice instructing him to sail west. IN A MOMENT.—The veil that conceals the other world is only our embodied existence, and though our body is fearfully and wonderfully made it is but frail mortality. The puncture of a thorn, the sting of an insect, a mite of poison, or a tiny shot, may cause it to fall in death. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the throb of a pulse, we may start into disembodied spirits, glide into the company of spirits, and pass into the knowledge of the other world.

ALL IS LIGHT.—When Mrs. Hervey was very near death, she said: “If this is the dark valley, it has not a dark spot in it; all is light.”

HOMESICK SAILORS.—It is said that when Cortez led his sailors across the vast continent of South America, after months of toil and sickness, they climbed one of the peaks of the Andes, and saw far away in the distance the glimmering of the sea. It was their native element, their love and their home; and they wept for joy.

FOSTER’S LONGING.—The godly Foster said: “I long to see Jesus, and the angels who have watched over me and befriended me, and all the great and good whose virtues have enriched the ages. I know I shall hasten to worship my Lord, and to Him I shall pour out my reverent love. I shall see crowding down to the shore some forms that will give me their first caress.”

LUTHER’S IDEA.—The night before Luther died, he was tolerably well, and sat with his friends at the table. The subject was future recognition. Luther insisted that friends would know each other in Heaven, as Adam recognized Eve. NOT STRANGERS.—A beloved daughter lay dying, but her body and soul recoiled from death. “Don’t let me die! Hold me fast! Oh, I can’t go.” It was said to her, “Jenny, you have two brothers in the other world, and there are thousands of tender-hearted people over there who will love you and take care of you.” But again she cried: “Don’t let me go; they are strangers over there.” But even as she was pleading, her face turned upward and her eyes were filled with the Divine recognition. Her eyes grew brighter and brighter as she gazed. At last she said: “Mamma, they are not strangers; I’m not afraid!” Her form sank, she was gone.