The Washington herald., 1914-05-23
1GZlT Nz5 1EU6Hs0
~ AA2!sSzkG .
Road to Heaven.
zzH NZ12zEp Az1zZ

Having reached the years Of discre-
t;en nth little accomplished which
makes ior eternity The Man had a
yisiok
He stood at the beginning of long
road-a rugged; uncertain path which
winds its difficult way along the most
impossible mountain crags, or else
through deep and shadowed valleys,
sometimes dwindling down to the
merest thread, and at its beginning a
singpost told him that it was The
Road to Heaven.
sit entails too much effort said The
Man to himself, but as he spoke he saw
beyond the crags and deep valleys where
the read grew wide and smooth, trailing
like 4 golden ribbon in the sunlight, and
on either side OF it grew the spiritual
prototypes of earth's fairest flowers.
Then the veil of matter was torn
asunder and he saw the Goal.
And when the vision had faded the
memory of the Goal was SO wondrous
fair that The Man decided at once that
straightway he would eliminate from
his scheme of living everything that
might retard his progress along the
Road to Heaven.
withdrew from the World.
Said he to himself:
81 will keep myself unspotted from
the world. / will live on a plane of
mind and spirit, allowing nothing un-
clean SO much as to touch the hem of
my garments, and thus will traverse
the Road to Heaven successfully, and
quickly reach the Goal"
So he Withdrew himself from the
friends of years, aud went into seclu-
sion He attired himself in snow-white
linen and denied himself contact with
ali worldly pleasures hating the sense
less folly of the human race; giving his
hours to the reading of lofty thoughts,
the hearing of beautiful music; to
prayer, and to self-communion.
And all the while he dreamed of the
Goal that lay at the end of the Road to
Heaven.
1t was desirable beyond the power of
human language to express, but as the
years sped by The Man looked out upon
the road he was travelling and was
nightly surprised to find himself still
on the first lap.
Strange" said he to himself, "it must
be that / am still living too worldly a
life"
So he still further distanced himself
from his former and environment,
hating the world for its materialism, be-
coming an ascetic with eyes straining
ever to catch sight of the end of The
Road, which somehow eluded him more
than ever, while the path he travelled
grew so narrow and difficult and lonely
that the heart of The Man became heavy
indeed.
Path Was Closed.
On a day he found himself facing
signpost at the end of his thread of
path telling him that the way was closed.
The Man who had kept himself for
years untouched by the foibles and fol-
Mes of human life was frankly bewil-
dered.
= He stood on the highest boulder and
strained his eyes to catch sight of the
Goal he sought, but all he saw was a
tangled wilderness in which he seemed
quite alone
Footsore and hungry, and weary as
he was he retraced. his steps, and when
he had travelled far over the isolated
way he had come, the way. by which he
had thought he could quickly reach the
Goal-he met woman. She was
standing at tine beginning of the very
same rugged, uncertain path which
winds its way with infinite tedium over
mountain crags. and through deep,
shadowy valieys-the same road with
its signpost proclaiming it to be "The
Road to Heaven" which The Man had
thought in the beginning to travel by
way of asceticism. 81
The woman was ragged and feeble,
and soiled with much travel, and she
carried bundle which weighted her
down.
Forgetting his vow to touch nothing
unclean, The Man lifted the burden
from the woman's shoulders, swung it
across his own broad back, and for the
first time in years he felt the warm glow
of human sympathy in his heart.
He strobe forward down the road
that. showed only difficulties, and when
after awhile he turned 10 look at the
IL r IL