154 For I am sure
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers;
nor
height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
romans 8:38-39
155 Death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
william penn
156
The night before landing in Liverpool I awoke in my berth with a
strange sense of trouble and sadness. As I lay wondering what it
meant, I
felt myself invaded by a Presence and held by the Everlasting Arms.
It was
the most extraordinary experience I had ever had. But I had no intimation
that anything was happening to Lowell [his eleven-year-old son].When
we
landed in Liverpool a cable informed me that he was desperately ill,
and a
second cable, in answer to one from me, brought the dreadful news
that he
was gone. When the news reached my friend John Wilhelm Rowntree,
he
experienced a profound sense of Divine Presence enfolding him and
me,
and his comfort and love were an immense help to me in my trial. … I
know
now as I look back across the years, that nothing has carried me
up into the
life of God, or done more to open out the infinite meaning of love,
than the
fact that love can span this break of separation, can pass beyond
the visible
and hold right on across the chasm. The mystic union has not broken
and
knows no end.
rufus m. jones, 1947