He
wanted that happiness from us; and He wanted us to expect it from Him
and from each other; and if we had answered, all would have been like
the first marriage feast, where they had the very best wine, and such
lots of it. But, you see, we couldn't answer; we had no souls. We were
just like the men on Cloud Island who laughed at you when you wanted
them to build a hospital. The little self or soul that we had was of
that sort that we couldn't even love each other very much with it, and
not Him at all. So there was only one way, and that was for us to grow
out of these stupid little souls, and get good big ones, that can enjoy
God, and enjoy each other, and enjoy everything perfectly." She looked
up over the yellow sand-hills into the deep sunny sky, and drew a long
breath of the April air involuntarily. "Oh," she said, "a good, big,
perfect soul could enjoy so much."
It seemed as if she thought she had said it all and finished the
subject.
"Well," said Caius, interested in spite of himself, "if God wanted to
make us happy, He could have given us that kind of soul."
"Ah, no! We don't know why things have to grow, but they must;
everything grows--_you_ know that. For some reason, that is the best
way; so there was just one way for those souls to grow in us, and He
showed us how. It is by doing what is quite perfectly right, and bearing
all the suffering that comes because of it, and doing all the giving
side of love, because here we can't get much.
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