Page:Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1888).djvu/507

 stretched out his protecting hand over the sinner, over him who had already repented. And then the scene changed.—They glided unseen through rich and stately saloons, as well as the rooms of the poor, which had written over them the names of Luxury, Envy, and all the deadly sins, one after the other.

An angel from the judgment seat appeared and read to each of them their sins and their excuses. For he told them that God was omniscient and knew the smallest as well as the greatest sinner. God reads the heart and is acquainted with every hidden sin that dwells there. But He remembers also the temptations which present themselves from the outer world, as well as from our own hearts, and knows also when to show mercy and pitying love.

The preacher’s hand trembled, he dared not stretch it out now to pluck a single hair from the head of any sinner. The tears streamed from his eyes as he thought of the Fountain of mercy and love, by which even the everlasting fire of hell can be quenched.

And then the cock crew.

The preacher fell on his knees, and cried and prayed—

“All merciful God, grant I pray thee rest and peace in the grave to those whom I would have condemned.”

“They will find it now,” said the dead wife. “Yours were hard words, and a dark description of God’s dealings with his creatures. Yet mankind know that even in the wicked, the soul is a part of God himself, a part which will conquer death and the grave, and extinguish even hell-fire for ever and ever—.”

The preacher felt a kiss upon his lips, and in a moment there was light all around him. God’s bright sun shone into the room, and there stood his living wife, tender and full of love. She had awaked him from a dream which had been sent him by God.