Page:Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1888).djvu/448

 continue to hear the hideous cries of the great black birds that followed them, croaking and cawing so loudly that nothing was ever heard like it before in the world.

It made the wandering spirit leap like a hunted hind, and in one of these leaps it set its foot on a firestone, which burnt and wounded it terribly.

“Who strewed these sharp stones here?” asked the soul; “they cover the ground like withered leaves.”

“Each thoughtless word,” replied the angel, “that fell on the heart of thy neighbour from thee, wounded him far more deeply than these stones on the ground have wounded thee.”

“Judge not and ye shall not be judged,” sounded through the air. “We are all sinners at times,” said the soul, taking courage; “the law and the gospel were my rules of life. I have done what I could: I am not like other people.”

And presently they arrived at the gates of neaven, and the angel who guarded the door asked the soul, “Who art thou? Tell me in what you believe, and show me your deeds.”

“I have all the commandments strictly kept, and with my whole heart and soul before the eyes of the world I have avoided the society of those wicked persons who travelled the broad road that leadeth to destruction, and I would have fought for my faith with fire and sword had it been necessary.”

“Then you are a Mahometan also?” asked the angel.

“I? Never!” was the earnest reply.

“‘They that take the sword shall perish by the sword,’” are the words of the Saviour. “Thou dost not believe this,” replied the angel. “Art thou a child of Israel to whom Moses said, ‘An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth?’ A son of Israel, whose jealous God was only the God of his chosen people?”

“I am a Christian,” was the reply, more humbly.

“Then do not attempt to bear witness to your own faith and your own works. The Christian doctrine is, reconciliation to God through His infinite love and mercy.”

“Mercy!” How the word echoed through infinite space. The portals of heaven opened, and the redeemed soul entered into eternal glory.

But the ineffable light was so blinding, so overpowering, that the soul drew back as if it were a drawn sword.

Soft and overpowering music, which no earthly tongue can describe, filled the air, while the happy spirit trembled and bowed deeper and deeper before the glorious light of heaven, and felt, as it had never felt before, the great enormity of the sins it had committed during life.

But the load was lifted now, for in the heart all was light. The soul was ready also to own that the good deeds shehe [sic] had performed on earth were done through the divine help of “Another,” but the evil sprung from herselfhimself [sic].

One glance at the clear glorious effulgence of the throne, and the soul, crushed with the overpowering brightness, sunk on the golden pavement of