And, most precious privilege of all, whatever perplexity, sorrow, guilt, may weigh upon their souls, they can fling down the dark burden at the foot of the cross, and go forth-to sin no more, nor be any longer disquieted but to live again in the freshness and elasticity of innocence. In the calm interior, fragrant of rich and soothing incense, they may hold converse with some saint, their awful, kindly friend. They may enter its sacred precincts at any hour, leaving the fret and trouble of the world behind them, and purifying themselves with a touch of holy water at the threshold. Who, in truth, that considers the matter, can resist a similar impression! In the hottest fever-fit of life, they can always find, ready for their need, a cool, quiet, beautiful place of worship.

Observing this arrangement, though already familiar to her, our poor Hilda was anew impressed with the infinite convenience-if we may use so poor a phrase-of the Catholic religion to its devout believers. They are small tabernacles of carved wood, with a closet for the priest in the centre and, on either side, a space for a penitent to kneel, and breathe his confession through a perforated auricle into the good father’s ear. Around this portion of the church are ranged a number of confessionals. She had now come into the southern transept. It was to Hilda as if she beheld the worship of the priest and people ascending heavenward, purified from its alloy of earth, and acquiring celestial substance in the golden atmosphere to which it aspired, She wondered if angels did not sometimes hover within the dome, and show themselves, in brief glimpses, floating amid the sunshine and the glorified vapor, to those who devoutly worshipped on the pavement.

These great beams of radiance, traversing what seemed the empty space, were made visible in misty glory, by the holy cloud of incense, else unseen, which had risen into the middle dome. They rested upon the mosaic figures of two evangelists above the cornice. Still gliding onward, Hilda now looked up into the dome, where the sunshine came through the western windows, and threw across long shafts of light. You should visit Browse Happy and update your internet browser today! The embedded audio player requires a modern internet browser.

Hawthorne the marble faun