Every now and then there came to their ears the sound of children’s voices and their happy laughter, for in a nearby meadow were all the little children belonging to the company. Their parents had carried them up there to one of the King’s playgrounds, where they could play together under the loving care of some of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Love. There was the child who used to be called Doldrums, and the twins Sob and Drizzle and their brother Surly, and also little Tit-for-Tat. It is lovely to be able to record that up there they all answered to new names and were already beginning to dislike their old ones. They were named after the jewels which gleam in the walls of the King’s Royal City, and they themselves looked as lovely as jewels as they ran about in the sunshine.

On one side of the Mountain of Aloes near the place where the company were gathered together, there flowed a river “clear as crystal and brimming to the banks,” until it reached a place where it must pour itself over the cliffs in a great waterfall to the valley below. When it reached the Low Places this river flowed through a Valley of Shadow and men called it the River of Death, because down there its waters were dark and icy cold, and those who had to pass through it came up into a part of the valley which was even colder and darker, after which their way vanished between somber mountains where no eye could follow them.

Up on the High Places, however, this river was called “The River of Life.” Those who passed through it up there came straight up out of the waters without their mortal garments, into the Kingdom of Eternal Life and Love, where there is no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, and no more partings for ever.

After the company had feasted and rejoiced together for some time, and after the King had finished speaking to them, they sang together one of the Mountain songs.

Art thou fearful love will fail?

Foolish thought and drear,

“God is love” and must prevail,

Love casts out all fear!

We have seen his lovely plan

In God’s Son made Son of Man.

Holy love could not create

Save for love’s sake sweet,

Therefore we his creatures wait

Union made complete.

When love’s perfect work is done,

God and man will be at one.

We may know that God is love,

Know his Father’s heart,

He hath spoken from above

And our doubts depart.

We have seen what hath sufficed

In the face of Jesus Christ.