The gates ajar. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

The Gates Ajar. 79
"If that is sure, the rest is of less importance; yes. But Dr. Bland said an awful
thing! "
"The quotation from a dead divine?"
"Yes. That there will be no separate interests, no thoughts to conceal."
"Poor good man! He has found out by
this time that he should not have laid down
nonsense like that, without qualification or
demur, before a Bible-reading hearer. It was
simply his opinion, not David's, or Paul's, or
John's, or Isaiah's. He had a perfect right
to put it in the form of a conjecture. Nobody
would forbid his conjecturing that the inhabitants of heaven are all deaf and dumb, or
wear green glasses, or shave their heads, if he
chose, provided he stated that it was conjecture, not revelation."
"But where does the Bible say that we shall
have power to conceal our thoughts? - and
I would rather be annihilated than to spend
eternity with heart laid bare, - the inner temple thrown open to be trampled on by every
passing stranger! "
"The Bible specifies very little about the
minor arrangements of eternity in any way.
But I doubt if, under any circumstances, it