Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1873-03-29
Yet still, though with but a feeble hope,

WEAKNESS at last brought sleep; and
in her dreams she saw lovely vision of
the temple as it once had been. While
columns cleaned, sweet and solemn
music sounded, and she herself minister
ed in VIII to robes at the altar, before
radiant form, on which she could
scarcely for q moment gaze.
The awaking from this dream to the
desolation around he was more terrible
than all she had felt before. 1t must
have bereft her of reason but for the
echo Of three cheering words which
seemed to have awakened her-'I will
come"
The next day, with the light of that
radiant vision on her heart, she dragged
her fettered limbs to the altar, and
strove with her feeble and trembling
hands to tear that marred image from
the shrine. But in vain. 1t was too
firmly imbedded there and she could
only turn her face from it, and weep
and cry for help. And before the next
mornings dawn help came. In the
night, a heavenly visitant decended;
and with human words, in language
she had not spoken for years, but every
word of which melted her heart like the
accents of her mother-tongue, he touch
ed her chains, and they fell off he
spoke, and the wild beasts fed, bowling;
he touched her broken harp, and it was
restrung and turned he touched the
dry choked-up channel OF the sacred
spring, and it welled forth pure and
fresh from beneath the altar he touch
ed the idol on the shrine, and it fell,
and in its stead shone that wondrous
radiance which she had seen in her
dream then he poured on her head the
fragrant oil of conservation, and clothed
her in a white vestal-priestly garment,
and placed the restrung harp in her
hand, and rose again to heaven.
At first her Joy knew no measure
She gazed on the sacred shrine, aud in
the glory above it at times she perceiv-
ed the lineaments of the form of Him
who had done all this for her. She
touched her harp, and the sweet strings
responded as if they knew her hand
she sang holy songs in that old, long
yetfamiliar tongue, so heaven
ly and happy that the wild beasts would
not venture near, and the morning birds
were silent to listen. She bathed in
the newly-opened fountain and drank of
it ; and as she drank, her strength and
her youth came back.
For time her Joy was without cloud
or measure; but as the daylight re-
turned, the desolation of the ruined
temple struck sadly on her heart. 1t
was indeed sacred place once more,
and she its consecrated priestess but
was this fuin never to be repaired?
She began to cleanse the sacred vessels
and to sweep the earth of all the refuse
and dry bones which had been gathered
there and then, with her renewed
she set herself to collect the
broken fragments of the columns, and
tried to piece together the shattered
tracery and the delicate carvings of
Cover and foliage. But it was in vain.
She could indeed bring the shattered
fragments together, and see what they
had been, but she could not join them.
Or replace one prostrate shaft or capital
and as she sat down mournfully before
her shrine, tears dimmed her eyes, so
that she could scarcely see the radiance
there, and, falling on her harp-strings,
would have rusted them and marred
their sweetness; whilst in the silence a
voice, too long and bitterly familiar,
was heard at the door. Turning round,
she preceived the form Of the enemy
there, whilst behind him glared fierce
and hungry eyes and in her terror the
harp almost fell from her hands.
But she threw herself on her knees
before the altar, pressed the harp con-
to her heart, and cried, "Will
these ruins never be repaired, these
doors never closed against my enemy
and thine?" The pressure of her trem-
bling fingers drew forth some plaintive
strains, like the wind on Eolian strings
hut low and plaintive as they were, the
enemy disappeared, and the wild beasts
fed bowling from them. Then she be-
gan to perceive the power OF her harp,
and drew from it a song of Joy and
triumph and as she still gazed on the
radiant shrine q veil seemed to be with
drawn fromit; and she preceived that
it was window, so that the ightstream-
ed through it, not from it. Wondering
she gazed, until, penetrating further
and further through the light, she saw
in the depths of Heaven temple like
her own, only perfect, glorious beyond
comparison, and full-f,lll of worships
robed and singing like herself, and full
of that wondrous radiance which stream
ed from the heavenly form she had seen,
She laid her harp upon the shrine, and
to her surprise the strings began to
culver OF their own accord An electric
current united them to the harps in
the heavenly temple, and they vibrated
in exquisite harmonies the echo Of the
harmonies above.
And with the heavenly strains came
voice divine and human, mighty as the
sound Of many waters, yet soft and near
as a whisper in her ear: Here all ruins |
are repaired, the enemy cannot enter
here, but here thou shalt dwell forever"