{"product_id":"2940012760340","title":"Crying for the Light Volume II","description":"CONTENTS OF VOL. II.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER                                        PAGE\u003cbr\u003e         XI.  THE STRUGGLES OF A SOUL             1\u003cbr\u003e        XII.  IN LOW COMPANY                     30\u003cbr\u003e       XIII.  CONCERNING SAL                     54\u003cbr\u003e        XIV.  AN ENCOUNTER                       73\u003cbr\u003e         XV.  ELECTIONEERING                     94\u003cbr\u003e        XVI.  ELECTIONEERING AGAIN              114\u003cbr\u003e       XVII.  QUIET TALKS                       138\u003cbr\u003e      XVIII.  THE IRISH PRASTE                  176\u003cbr\u003e        XIX.  WENTWORTH RETIRES                 195\u003cbr\u003e         XX.  A STORM BREWING                   212\u003cbr\u003e        XXI.  AN UNPLEASANT RENCONTRE           232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER XI.\u003cbr\u003eTHE STRUGGLES OF A SOUL.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere comes to us all a time when we seek something for the heart to rely\u003cbr\u003eon, to anchor to, when we see the hollowness of the world, the\u003cbr\u003edeceitfulness of riches; how fleeting is all earthly pleasure, how great\u003cbr\u003eis the need of spiritual strength, how, when the storm comes, we require\u003cbr\u003ea shelter that can defy its utmost force.  Out of the depths the heart of\u003cbr\u003eman ever cries out for the living God.  The actress Rose felt this as\u003cbr\u003emuch amid the glare of life and the triumphs of the stage as the monk in\u003cbr\u003ehis cloister or the hermit in his desert cell.  Like all of us, in whom\u003cbr\u003ethe brute has not quenched the Divine light which lighteth everyone who\u003cbr\u003ecometh into the world, she felt, as Wordsworth writes:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    ‘The world is too much with us, late and soon;\u003cbr\u003e    Getting and spending we lay waste our power.\u003cbr\u003e    Little we see in Nature that is ours;\u003cbr\u003e    We have given our hearts away a sordid boon.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe felt, as we all must feel, that there is something more than this\u003cbr\u003efeverish dream we call life—something greater and grander and more\u003cbr\u003eenduring beyond.  To her the heavens declared the glory of a God, and the\u003cbr\u003efirmament showed forth His handiwork.  To her day unto day uttered\u003cbr\u003espeech, and night unto night showed forth knowledge.  She had no wish to\u003cbr\u003eshut out Divine speech.  Her labour was how best to hear it, and most\u003cbr\u003equickly to obey.  The history of humanity testifies to this one\u003cbr\u003eall-pervading desire in ages most remote, in countries the most savage.\u003cbr\u003eAs the great Sir James Mackintosh wrote to Dr. Parr in 1799, after the\u003cbr\u003eloss of his wife: ‘Governed by those feelings which have in every age and\u003cbr\u003eregion of the world actuated the human mind to seek relief, I find it in\u003cbr\u003ethe soothing hope and consolatory reflection that a benevolent wisdom\u003cbr\u003einflicts the chastisements, as well as bestows the enjoyments of human\u003cbr\u003elife; that superintending goodness will one day enlighten the darkness\u003cbr\u003ewhich surrounds our nature and hangs over our prospects; that this dreary\u003cbr\u003eand wretched life is not the whole of man; that an animal so sagacious\u003cbr\u003eand provident, and capable of such science and virtue, is not like the\u003cbr\u003ebeasts that perish; that there is a dwelling-place prepared for the\u003cbr\u003espirits of the just, and that the ways of God will yet be vindicated to\u003cbr\u003eman.’  Our actress felt the same; she had, she felt, a soul to be saved,\u003cbr\u003ea God to be loved, a heaven to be won.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut how?  Ah! that was the question.  Naturally she turned to the old\u003cbr\u003eChurch of Christendom, the Church that calls itself Catholic and\u003cbr\u003euniversal.  She went to the priest; he showed her a bleeding Saviour, and\u003cbr\u003ea burning, bottomless pit.  She trembled as she stood in the old dim\u003cbr\u003ecathedral, where no light of heaven ever came, where no voice of mercy\u003cbr\u003eever penetrated, where the whole air of the place was redolent of\u003cbr\u003epriestcraft and artifice and sham.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘You,’ screams the priest, ‘are all unjust, extortioners, adulterers,\u003cbr\u003edead in trespasses and sins.  Give me money, and I will make it right\u003cbr\u003ewith the Almighty.  Down on your marrow-bones, eat fish on a Friday,\u003cbr\u003ecount your beads, confess to me—a man no better than yourself—pay for\u003cbr\u003eMasses.  In my hand is the key to eternal joy; pay my fees, and the door\u003cbr\u003eshall be unlocked, and you shall straightway go to paradise.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRefuse, and he shows you an angry Jehovah, in His rage destroying a fair\u003cbr\u003eworld which He Himself had called into being and filled with life, and\u003cbr\u003esweeping millions into torments that never end.  The sight is awful.\u003cbr\u003eHappily, reason comes to the rescue, and the priest and the cathedral,\u003cbr\u003eand the Mass and the music, the incense and wax lights, disappear.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47170174648560,"sku":"2940012760340","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012760340_p0.jpg?v=1763572261","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012760340","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}