Samantha at Saratoga [94]
shaw in the right place." "Wall," sez he, "they are a low set that follers it up mostly, and you know it." And his head was right up in the air, and he looked very skernful. But I sez, "Josiah Allen, you are a shawin' agin in the wrong place," sez I. "If what you say is true, remember that 1800 years ago, the same cry wuz riz up by Pharisees, `He eats with Publicans and sinners.' They would not have a king who came in the guise of the poor, they scerned a spiritual truth that did not sparkle with worldly lustre. "But it shone on; it lights the souls of humanity to-day. Let us not be afraid, Josiah Allen. Truth is a jewel that cannot be harmed by deepest investigation, by roughest handlin'. It can't be buried, it will shine out of the deepest darkness. What is false will be washed away, what is true will remain. For all this frettin', and chafing, all this turbelence of conflectin' beliefs, opposin' wills, will only polish this jewel. Truth, calm and serene, will endure, will shine, will light up the world." He begun to look considerable softer in mean, and I continued on: "Josiah Allen, you and I know what we believe the beautiful religion (Methodist Episcopal) that we both love, makes a light in our two souls. But don't let us stand in that light and yell out, that everybody else's light is darkness; that our light is the only one. No, the heavens are over all the earth; the twelve gates of heaven are open and a shinin' down on all sides of us. "Jonesville meetin' house (Methodist Episcopal) haint the only medium through which the light streams. It is dear to us, Josiah Allen, but let us not think that we must coller everybody and drag 'em into it. And let us not cry out too much at other folkses superstitions, when the rock of our own faith, that comforts us in joy and sorrow, is sot in a sea of supernaturalism. "You know how that faith comforts our two souls, how it is to us, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, but they say, their belief is the same to them, let us not judge them too hardly. No, the twelve gates of heaven are open, Josiah Allen, and a shinin' down onto the earth. We know the light that has streamed into our own souls, but we do not know exactly what rays of radience may have been reflected down into some other lives through some one of those many gates. "The plate below has to be prepared, before it can ketch the picture and hold it. The light does not strike back the same reflection from every earthly thing. The serene lake mirrors back the light, in a calm flood of glory, the flashin' waterfall breaks it into a thousand dazzlin' sparkles. The dewy petal of the yellow field lily, reflects its own ray of golden light back, so does the dark cone of the pine tree, and the diamond, the opal, the ruby, each tinges the light with its own coloring, but the light is all from above. And they all reflect the light, in their own way for which the Divine skill has prepared them. "Let us not try to compel the deep blue Ocean waves and the shinin' waterfall, and the lily blow, to reflect back the light, in the same identical manner. No, let the light stream down into high places, and low ones, let the truth shine into dark hearts, and into pure souls. God is light. God is Love. It is His light that shines down out of the twelve gates, and though the ruby, or the amethyst, may color it by their own medium, the light that is reflected, back is the light of Heaven. And Josiah Allen," sez I in a deeper, earnester tone, "let us who know so little ourselves, be patient with other ignerent ones. Let us not be too intolerent, for no intolerence, Josiah Allen is so cruel as that of ignerence, an' stupidity." Sez Josiah, "I won't believe in anything I can't see, Samantha Allen." I jest looked round at him witheringly, and sez I, "What have you ever seen, Josiah Allen, I mean that is worth sein'? Haint everything that is worth havin' in life, amongst the unseen? The deathless loves, the aspirations, the deep hopes, and faiths, that live in us and through us, and animate us and keep us