Means and Ends - 1839 Author:Catharine Maria Sedgwick Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. There appeared once on an eminence so elevated as to overlook an immense circuit of country, a beautiful female of cele... more »stial origin. The day was not quite gone, but the moon, not yet at the full, had risen above the eastern horizon, and moved a queen through a field of clear azure, while the west, against which the figure of the female was relieved, was glowing with a yellow so deep and brilliant, that it appeared like a shower of molten gold, and in the south were floating light clouds tinged with the hues of the rainbow. The eyes of mortals were suddenly arrested and fixed on the lone and lovely figure of the female. Truth was stamped on her brow, with that union of power and repose, which the ideal artist has given to his most exquisite work. Her eyes so glowed with devotion, that it seemed as if she lit a holy flame in every mortal on im they were for a moment turned ; and in v movement of her beautiful mouth, love,and the virtues that attend it, charity, mercy and pity, were expressed. Crowds upon crowds gathered around her. Some boldly and ostentatiously pressed forward, appearing rather as if they were the champions than the servants of this heaven-born creature. On these she looked coldly, and her look seemed to say, " Ye know not what spirit ye are of!" Others there were who in their hot zeal pressed almost to her feet, and prostrated themselves before her, professing themselves ready to spend their days and nights in praying, and singing praises to her. To these she said kindly, for she knew them to be real, though misapprehending friends, " Children, ye mistake my service. My followers are bound to instant and constant work—doing and suffering are their watchwords, and if, in the midst of their l...« less