The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-06-28

themselves by his protection above, in o future
life, for the present and immediate destruction
which they are incurEng among the Pharisees
and the men of power here below"
Looking round, they bebeld Esther of the
Maccabees.
Never had she seemed to Paulus SO beautiful;
but there was a marked change; for however
in tellectual had always been the translucent
purity of that oval brow, through which, as
through lamp of alabaster, sbone the vivid
mind within, there was now the mysterious
efflueuce of THAT Essence increate" who had
come to abide in, and had strangely transfg-
ured the appearance OF, the faithful-souled
Hebrew maiden. And when Paulus, after she
had embraced his mother, abstractedly took
her hand, his heart was lifted upward with a
species of wonder and, without adverting to
it, he was asking himself to what marvellous
kingdom she b ad become heiress, in what su-
pernal court of everlasting joy and unassaila-
BILE prerogatives was this beautiful creature
destined to live, loving and beloved, adornipg
almost the glories which she reflected, dis
pensed, and multiplied, as if from some holy,
mysterious, and spiritual mirror.
30 dear Lady Aglais! and oh legatus w she
said, with a gesture amazing in its expressive
ness and pathetic fervor (she had brought the
finger-tips of both hands together under the
chin, and then lowered them with the palms
outward toward her hearers, and 80 she stood
in an attitude of the utmost grace and dig
nifty combined, like one appealing to the candor
and good faith of others y" o dear friends !
1 was Just now passing through my own gar
den on my way hither, when, under the fig
tree (where he used to sit pouring the
holy books of our people), l beheld my dead
father, but standing, and not in his old accus-
toned wicker chair and he gazed upon me
with large, earnest eyes ; and he stood, his
head almost touched the leaves of that hol-
low, empowering fg-tree; and he was pale,
so extremely pale as he was never during life !;
and he called me: Esther be said, and his
voice sounded far away. Alb my God, from
what huge distance it seemed to come! And
10! lady, and thou, legatus, he said these
words to me: have been in the vast, dim
house, aud have seen our Father Abraham;
and have seen our great Lawgiver, and all
our prophets, excepting only two, Elias and
Enoch and 1 asked, Where were theyi And
in all the dim, vast house none answered me
but the forefnger was pressed to the silent
lips of those who there waited. And, suddenly
there was the noise of innumerable armies
coming swiftly from afar-but your ears are
mortal and your eyes yelled, and were 1 eve
permitted to tell you that which shook be-
yond this little world, the large world and its
eternal thrones, your mind would not at pres
ent understand my words. Enough Esther,
that have been allowed to renew to you, in
my own behalf, and that of others among our
people who have been called before you to the
vast. Oh IN, silent citv. the xhOrtafioD rybi
our ancestor Judas Maccabeus sent with offer
ings to the high priest; namely, that you will
pray for our spirits. Our innumerable COM
pany has just been thinned the glorious
Judas Maccabeus, our ancestor, and that holy
mother of the Maccabees and almost all who
were waiting with me in the dim, vast king
7 dom of expectation, have gone for ever and
| l, and a few, have been commanded to expect
yet little time; until the incense of holy
prayer shall have further gone up in the pres
ence of the Great White Throne'"
Esther paused, her eyes dilated, and stood
moment with the hands again brought to-
gether; and so perfect figure of truthful lness,
and such an inpersonaton of since rty, she
looked, that the Jewish servant, who under
stood not a word of the tongue in which she
addressed the Greek lady and her son, gazed
AT hSi hls "ork suspended, MS caSk held
high in air, with all the marks of one who
heard and accepted some sacred and unques-
tonable revelation.
eco on, dear child" said Aglais. ."what
passed furtherf"
{" asked the pale image what this meant,
that he should term the condition in which he
is waiting and has yet to wait little time-
that vast, dim condition. house, "a city,
and a Kingdom The dwellers,' he replied,
are watched ia that kingdom by silent pro-
tectors, mighty and beautiful, whose faces, full
of a severe, sad love, are the torches and the
only light those jewellers ever see and the
vast, dim city has sunless and starless sky
for its roof, under which they wait and tn at
sky is the ceiling which echoes the signs of
their pain and thus to them it has been a
kingdom and city, and house and, until
the ninth hour of last Friday, they were nu-
merous as the nations of menr Aud at the
ninth hour of that day. 1 asked, % my
father ! what occurred when SO many Departed