"I
love thee! I love thee! I love thee!" cried the violin; and the
worship was entreaty that knew not itself. On and on it went,
ever beginning ere it ended, as if it could never come to a
close; and the two sat listening as if they cared but to hear,
and would listen for ever--listening as if, when the sound
ceased, all would be at an end, and chaos come again.
Ah, do not blame, thou who lovest God, and fearest the love of
the human! Hast thou yet to learn that the love of the human is
love, is divine, is but a lower form of a part of the love of
God? When thou lovest man, or woman, or child, yea, or even dog,
aright, then wilt thou no longer need that I tell thee how God
and his Christ would not be content with each other alone in the
glories even of the eternal original love, because they could
create more love. For that more love, together they suffered and
patiently waited. He that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how shall he love God whom he hath not seen?
A sob, like a bird new-born, burst from Mary's bosom. It broke
the enchantment in which Joseph was bound. That enchantment had
possessed him, usurping as it were the throne of his life, and
displacing it; when it ceased, he was not his own master. He
started--to conscious confusion only, neither knowing where he
was nor what he did. His limbs for the moment were hardly his
own.
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