This is the Gospel according to Wilson MacDonald, and it was whispered to me by a company of Angels who roam joyously, and sometimes sadly, upon this strange planet called the earth, an invisible host save to the poets and the prophets and the dreamers among men.

The Angel of the Apple Blossom said unto me as I sat with her, in an orchard, one cloudless day in summer:

"Do not wonder, O Poet, who looks upon my beauty with so great an astonishment, for it is the inevitable reward of the course that you also have pursued, and will be your crown of ultimate glory if you allow no discouragement or defeat to thwart your purpose. The Lord of the Garden told me that he had made me to be of the greatest service to mankind and his command was that I should achieve great loveliness and great fragrance, and that, having achieved these, all other things should be added unto them.

"But, as I strove to be beautiful, the insect and the worm tried to baffle every effort that I made, and the winds tore the white satin of my robes and the drouth brought me thirst and weariness. But, despite all these misfortunes, I never turned back in my quest for beauty and fragrance. Then, when I had achieved these virtues they were taken from me, and the tide of the white sea of my beauty went out into the invisible waters. But I still strove to create new beauty and new fragrance and the Lord of the Garden was pleased with me because I did not complain over my loss, and he unsealed the womb of my faded petals and brought forth the red-cheeked Child of the Apple; and this child grew to maturity and became a servant to mankind, one of the most honored servants in the great Garden of the Lord."

...When beauty departed for a season, I remembered what the Angel of the Apple Blossom had said and it was not long before a Child came forth, out of my sorrow, to minister unto the peoples of the world.

And who looks into the pages of this book sees the face of this Child.