A New England girlhood, outlined from memory (Beverly, MA) by Lucy Larcom
page 35 of 235 (14%)
page 35 of 235 (14%)
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beginnings," both in Genesis and John. Every child's earliest and
proudest Scriptural conquest in school was, almost as a matter of course, the first verse in the Bible. But the passage which I learned first, and most delighted to repeat after Aunt Hannah,--I think it must have been her favorite too,--was, "Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father's house are many mansions." The Voice in the Book seemed so tender! Somebody was speaking who had a heart, and who knew that even a little child's heart was sometimes troubled. And it was a Voice that called us somewhere; to the Father's house, with its many mansions, so sunshiny and so large. It was a beautiful vision that came to me with the words,--I could see it best with my eyes shut,-a great, dim Door standing ajar, opening out of rosy morning mists, overhung with swaying vines and arching boughs that were full of birds; and from beyond the Door, the ripple of running waters, and the sound of many happy voices, and above them all the One Voice that was saying, "I go to prepare a place for you." The vision gave me a sens of freedom, fearless and infinite. What was there to be afraid of anywhere? Even we little children could see the open door of our Father's house. We were playing around its threshold now, and we need never wander out of sight of it. The feeling was a vague one, but it was like a remembrance. The spacious mansions were not far away. They were my home. I had known them, and should return to them again. |
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