Read "Parables in Household Things" by Elizabeth Rundle Charles online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE sick girl lay in her shaded room, in the street of a great city, / and thought, "If I could only leave this prison of mine, and look at / the beautiful world, I know I should grow happier and holier with every / breath I drew. The thorny bud on the brown branches in spring would / give me promise of resurrection; every butterfly would tell me of / life through death; every flower would lift my heart to Him who cares / for our little pleasures; every bubbling spring would murmur to me of / the living water; every corn-field and garden would repeat the sacred / parables. But here I can see nothing of God's making but the sky, and / that is too high and far. I want some steps to take my feeble thoughts / gently up to heaven. But around me are only manufactured things, which / speak to me only of earth, and time, and man."
She leant back listlessly on her couch. Twilight came over the room, / the glowing coals stirred quietly as they burnt away, and then it / seemed as if an angel's hand touched her ears and opened them, for the / dark and silent room became full of soft and soothing harmonics. All / the mute and inanimate things about her found voices and spoke comfort / to her heart.