WICVOICES S.L.MERSHON MerpreteiioTv ^Nature CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY arV1905 Mystic voices Cornell University Library 3 1924 031 201 878 oiin.anx Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924031 201 878 MYSTIC VOICES AN INTERPRETATION OF NATURE PART I Terrestrial Phones or Voices from the Visible PART II Celestial Phones or Voices from the Invisible BY S. L. MERSHON THEO. E. SCHULTE 13Z East 23d Street, New York 'I \ \ '-''/; Copyright, im S. L. MERSHOII TO THE MEMORY OF THAT FAITHFUL AND GODLY LONG ISLAND PASTOR Formerly of Easthampton, N. Y. REV. STEPHEN L. MERSHON By bis son Stephen L. IVIershon With illustrations by his grandson Stephen L. Mershon, 3rd. CONTENTS. PART 1 PAGE Recognition , . . . . . . . . .5 Nature's Call ......... 6 Grandfaitiek's Fakai ........ 7 The Inheritance OF Gkanlfaihek's Farm . . .11 Under Grandfather's Roof . . . . . .15 Beauty and Life on Grandi'A'iher's FariM . . .21 Bv THE Brook on Grandfather's Farm . . . .32 Drifitng Seaward ........ 37 Love on Grandfather's Farm . . . . . .41 The Si orm .......... 49 The Village Church ........ 54 The Charm of a Sacred Sabbath on Grandfather's Farm .......... 59 The Temple in Grandfather's Woods . . . .64 Resurrection Voices on Grandfa'i tier's Farm . . .70 Backward Ho ! . . .77 RECOGNITION. Introducing my loved Fathcr-in-Law and my be- loved Mother-in-Law, Mr. and Mrs. John Hawkins, our children's "Grandfather and Grandmother, of Grandfather's Farm," from whose lips I have never heard an unkind word, and whose daily life is a con- stant witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Wife, chil- dren and I send this greeting of love to them. The Author. MONTCLAIR, N. J. NATURE'S CALL. Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion that turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night ; that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth. — The Lord is His name (Amos 5:8). But ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the air and they shall tell thee (Job 12:7). He giveth to the Ijcast his food, and to the young ravens which cry ( Psa. 147:9). The heavens declare His righteousness and all the people see His glory (Psa. 97:6). The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice (Psa. 93:3). The Lord on hi,gh is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea (Psa. 93:4). Praise )e Him, sun and moon ; praise ve Him, all ye stars of light ( F'sa. 148:2). Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He com- manded and they were created (Psa. 148: 5). Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord (Psa. 96: 12-13). Ye shall go forth with joy and shall be led forth with peace, and all the hills shall break forth before you into singing, ajid all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isa. 55: 12). GRANDFATHER'S FARM. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saitli the Lord." — Isa. 54:17. I AM a Long Islander by birth; consequently I have a loyal interest in its welfare, as well as a lono" ac- quaintance with its varied natural attractions. It has been our happy experience to spend almost every summer for many years on Forge River, tribu- tary to Moriches Bay. A more charming spot can not be found on Long Island. We have discovered here a marvelous wealth of natural attractions, in the beautiful flowers, grace- ful ferns and majestic forests in their wildest charms. These timbered lands, open fields and fragrant meadows are inhabited by a vast population of birds with wondrous beaut}' and sweetest song. The waters of the river, ba)-s, brooks and coves seem alive with every variety of fresh and salt water fish abounding in this latitude. The clear, crisp nights, so freqtient on this part of the island, reveal a vision of the Starry World above our heads which, combined with Nature's be- wildering splendors so lavishly displayed about us, causes the true student of Nature to exxlaim : "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork," 8 GRANDFATHER'S FARM. Many go to the country, utterly oblivious to the beauties of the field, to kill the birds that are the soul and voice of the meadows, or, forg-ctting the woods, crowd into fashionable hotels for social gayeties, when a world of nature all about endowed with a benedic- tion of Divine Glory calls to a bright, beautiful and joyous companionship. tt ; flS^^^^H^KBE^Kbd^^^^^^^MH*^^ ^^SH >JW^M 1 ^^m ■'^■m^m^m'''i ,A -^^l^^iiS H|ve:$Ruin mm^B^rm^mmm^mmmm Hk ^^^^ 1 1 ■fi^m lg;;^?^pvS::ll^- 1*1 ^g ^:'''. 'J*i%^ '■ • ■• •: '■ ^ 4^ ttst 1 THE APPROACH TO GKANDFATHEKS FARM. In this God's workshop, where the Divine Creator paints the flowers, endows the trees with strength and beauty and exalts all Nature in lofty praise. We find — Grandfather's Farm. The large, old Colonial house, for over one hun- dred and fifty years, has stood "with latchstrintr GRA\WFATHER\S FARM. g out" to all and a ro\al welcome of sincere Christian hospitality. About the old hearthstone, laid by Pilgrim hands, we have heard strange stories of the days of long ago. Are we children of Nature ? Then a walk through Grandfather's woods and a look at Grandmother's flowers will fill our hearts with joy and our lips with songs. We will find that we are but babes in these woods, where tower aloft trees that have here stood on guard in the light of three centuries. Are we philosophers ? Then the mystery of blos- soms and fruits will there fill us with wonder and deep contemplation. Is there poetry in our nature ? Then the inspira- tion of forest and fen will find voice within and ex- pression without. Are we sons of God? Then all Nature there dis- played will tell of His glory and speak in His praise. Nature is the enshrinement of Divine love ! Near to Grandfather's gateway stands a grand old pear tree, with storm-beaten trunk and mossy limbs. This venerable and beloved old tree, for over a cen- tury, has borne its annual burden of luscious pears, as its contribution to the delights of this Colonial estate. In the midst of this joyous scene, we stop a mo- ment to pay tribute at the little Colonial burying- ground, forest-guarded, star-watched, moss-covered, at peace — while the breath of the vi^inds through the tree tops gives forth Nature's divinely attuned lo GRAXDFATHER'S FARM. requiem and the music of the birds makes here their sweet ministry of soncj'. Grandfather's Farm, what shall we call it? God's Cathedral, because of its over-arching forest, clois- tered shrubberies and bird choruses?' God's Celes- tial Cit_\-, because of its river of life? Or God's Bethany, for, like Bethany of old, there is a house in its midst in which the blaster loves to dwell. C)r shall we call it God's storehouse? for from its meadows and fields bursts forth the golden grain, and also spring to life the finest and best vegetables and table fruits. In fact, it is "a land of milk and honey" plus many good things ! The river flows to it, the ocean tide rolls to it, the birds fly to it, the crops come to it, the grand- children run to it, for they all love it, because it is Gra:idf cither's Farm . THE INHERITANCE OF GRAND- FATHER'S FARM. "I will pour my spirit upnn thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring." — Isa. 44:3. Great-grandi-atiier Hawkins was a man of heroic frame, rugged character and sturdy worth. The pro- prietor of a vast estate, he stood in his community for sterling tntegritw indomitable energv and furi- GRANUFATiniR S TKOUT I'OND. tan faith, jnst as (Ireat-grandmother Hawkins re- vealed in her beautiful Christian life all that was best and sweetest in her noble \'irginia hneage. 12 IXHERIT.IXCE OF GRANDFATHER'S FARM. In the flood-tide hour of his well-earned success, Great-grandfather Hawkins "was not, for God took him." A strange hush seemed all-pervasive that day. The trees whispered, the brooks murmured, while bleating sheep and lowing herds seemed to give a new interpretation to life under the shadows of death on the old farm. In this crisis hour Grandfather Hawkins moved out into the open and became the new master of the Colonial homestead. Great-grandfather Hawkins took not one acre of land with him. The huge granaries still held their overflowing stores of corn and wheat, while not a piece of family plate or a dollar from the savings of a lifetime accompanied this solitary traveler on his new and silent vo}'ag"e. No trunks were hurriedly packed, no little knick- nacks were tucked by loving hands into a waiting valise for use on this journey. The pilgrim calmly and quietly slipped a\va\", that day, taking with him only, but all sufticienth', a Chris- tian character and an abiding faith, which in sturdi- ness resembled his beloved oak tree, which in fidelitv to truth was like the North Star, bv which everv surveyed line on his landed estate was run. A char- acter which in radiance of worth revealed a light like unto the dawn of the mornings, as through the years they had met him in the early hours when the open- ing da\-s had called him to duty on the old farm. And so another life vanished out of sight ; as a INHERITANCE OE CRANDEATHER-.S EAR!\L 13 lij;"lit fades away, or as music dies out, or as arouias become insensate, so this life was, and then was not visible. Grandfather, that da}', felt a strangle weight of a new responsibility. He saw wonderful soils, prepared b\- Almioht\ God to firing forth great supplies of food, and God and these soils were now waiting" for him. He beheld vast crops divinely called into life and bountifulness from his father's sowings, now waiting for his sickle. He saw mute and faithful cattle and noble horses, zealously filling out their God-intended mission in life, but looking to him for food, shelter and proper care. He saw a place vacant in the counsels of the com- munity and an empt}- chair in the old home. He knew that the light had gone out in his nidth- er's life b}' this sad parting of the twain, and that from him must flow the balm of filial love and tender care. So grandfather became the high priest at the fam- ily altar, the custodian of a great and holy trust, the heir of sacred responsibilities and the loving son on whom a widowed mother leaned until her garments of mourning were exchanged for celestial raiments and her sad memories were forgotten amidst angelic welcomes and loving reunions in the palaces of the King. From that day to this God's benediction has rested upon the old Colonial home, for was not its title reverently received as a gift from God in the form I4 IXHERITAXCE OF GRAXDFATHER'S FARM. ' of a legacy from a noble Christian father? Angels from the Choirs Celestial in the City of God, when moving out on their earthly missions and hovering for a time over the old farm, have seen its fields and forests lifting up their glories to the praise of the jNIost High : have heard affectionate and reverent words ascending from the family altar, and have witnessed gifts going forth to the poor and needy. It has been said that moving bodies pursue their way along lines of least resistance, and if angels on their jo_\-ous errands of mercy move along highways where love and holy living make heavenly atmos- pheres for them, what tides of glorified life flow sil- ently in, out and about grandfather's farm. As Scotia's highlands filtrate their robustness into the rugged Scottish character, and as the sublime Alpine scenery and glorious ^Mediterranean sunsets gave birth to Italian art, and as Nature's mystic harmonies burst forth in symphonies and oratorios, so the soul of man, chaliced in cla\', feels the sublime pulsations of Divine energv in Xature. He with horoscopic outlook has soul visions in realms where one speck of matter would make friction and where pure love in sweet and holy effusion is discov- ered to be the life of God. It is well, then, to "bide a wee" on grandfather's farm, the trysting-place of two worlds, and think. UNDER GRANDFATHER'S ROOF. "He blesseth the habitation of the just." — Prov. 3:ii. Somehow Father Time let down his great lantern below the bars of the western horizon, and the shad- ows of night enshrouded us. The evening meal was o\-er, and, going to an old cupboard, I found an old leather-bound volume lying by the side of an ancient pewter candlestick. It had written within its covers this strange statement : "He maketh the day dark with night." And so, opening wide the window high up in the peak of the ancestral home, I took ni}' out- look into the dark and starr}' night, and gave wings to thought. AA'hat visions of the past were beneath me ! Down the quaint stairway there glowed the d}-ing embers in the great old fireplace, the crude masoni"}' of wdiich testified in its mute and eloqttent way that Colonial love was indeed large, and that sturdy arms and rugged hearts, now long since gone, had hewed the timber and drawn the heav}- logs of wood, that loved dames might keep the fires burning on the hearthstone, and little children playing on the floor might sing happy songs on bleak winter nights, and read their text-books by the glow of the firelight. The massive brick oven built in this same chimney, speaks most eloquently to me of a Puritan art, now lost. .A.S I loitered by the window I heard the steady tick, tick of the old wooden-wheel, leaden-weighted i6 rXDER GRAXDFATHER'S ROOF. clock. This heirloom, as a recording' angel, has under this same roof ticked the birth-hour of generation after generation, and has also in the hush of angelic visitations struck the hour and ticked the minutes of many a soul's departure from this house into the larger life. Dear old clock I It is my solitary companion to- night, speaking to me of the fact that our lives are be- ing measured off with the certainty and continuity of the passing da\s, and that I am but one of a great mul- titude of pilgrims moving on and on, for a brief moment visible here, and then gone. ;\Iany have come and passed. The early settler, the groom, the bride, the little children, the old man, the aged part- ner of his joys and sorrows, trooping in and then trooping out. Here then — vanished now. Singly they came and one b>- one they passed on, the group of one generation gradually fading away as another generation came, moving in to till the soil, to keep the fires burning and to reap the fruits of others' planting, and then, leaving the heritage of a good name, they also moved out and up beyond our ken. Always coming, always going, never staving long, what joys and sorrows, what hopes and disappoint- ments have swept in and have glided awav from be- neath this old Colonial roof. Through all these intensely tragic changes that faithful old clock has ticked on, and that grand old Bible has lovingly spoken to each passing pilgrim the word of counsel in the time of action, the word of warning in the face of eternit}', the word of sym- pathy in the hour of sorrow, and the word of Divine UNDER GK.-lNDF.ITIIl-li-S ROOF. 17 Assurance when some old chair was left vacant and when the birds sang over some new-made mound in the sacred old burial-plot. And stj to-night, when grandfather wound the old clock and then sat down b}' the old fireplace, and opened that old book, and read the old, old story, and then when grandfather and grandmother knelt on the old floor and pra_ved to THE filD HOMESTEAIi, our God and to the God of our Fathers, methought that God and the angels would miss the tires of de- votion if they should go out from lieneath this roof after all these generations of communion with the Father in heaven, and so we fervently pra3;ed to- night for His blessing upon the children and the chil- dren's children to all generations until He comes. I8 UKDER GRANDFATHER'S ROOF. What troops of sacred and holy thoughts traversed the mind that night in the solemn, quiet hour as, look- ing- out in the dim light, I caught the outlines of the old farm, the winding solitary Indian trail, a misty vision of the silent little Colonial burial-place, and as holy memories flooded in upon me. Reluctantly, but with unwonted calm, I turned to m)- couch, and, throwing back the spread. I saw woven into the fabric the initials of a great-grandmother, who wove it ; and these beautiful homespun blankets were left by another motherly ancestor, who made yonder demure and now melancholy spinning-wheel sing, as in olden times it spun for her the thread, and who also com- panioned with yonder garret-exiled loom, as for her it wove the fabric for the coverlets of her loved ones, and their children yet to come. Did I sleep that night, under the weird charms of such unique environment ? Did I dream sweet dreams, love-ladened with mental photographs of jo}'S celestial, or did I have a real soul vision, not of beautiful things, but of heavenly thoughts ; not of sweet faces, but of glorified spirits ; and was I for a brief time carried into realms supernal ? One thing I know ; the loves of two worlds blended together that night in soul visions, and whether awake or asleep I know not, but being alive with wide open soul vision, great crystal tides of love from the sacred fonts of heavenly joys were outpoured about me. Therein were mirrored vanished lives which seemed to be music, beauty to look upon, radiant witlr celes- tial glory. And so I dreamed of or saw opening gates of pearl emitting waves of light, the rhvtlimic HHj^ ^ V '1 '^M 1 1 i M 1 I Dtti H ■■ itU 1 20 UNDER GRANDFATHER'S ROOF. flow of which was like the soul music of Paradise, every note as if from seraphic lips. Suddenly I was aroused, being called by the notes of the morning lark and the song of the robin greeting the rising sun. BEAUTY AND LIFE ON GRAND- FATHER'S FARM. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet. I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." — Matt. 6:28, 29. He who moves out from the mystery of midnight and its panoramic host of marshaled stars into the full-orhed light of day, on grandfather's farm, should have multi-eyes to witness a vast population inhahit- ing forest, iield and meadow ; should be keen-eared to hear the hum and rush of beehive, bird and ant- heap cities ; and with acute perceptions should be touched bv the ever-moving tides of industry, love and hope, rampant in the air, honeycombing the ground and navigating the sea. He should note the governments of force, the gov- ernments of law and the governments of love in full swa\', dominating the lower orders of animate cre- ation. He should have the soul of the artist, for fron: neutral colors and soft, retiring backgrounds great sentry trees stand in the approach ; or groups of up- lifted green, in gay or sombre garb, foreshadow a vista of receding meadows, where herds pasture in sweet content ; or else by change of outlook long lanes, with gnarled and knotty trees of sturdy frame, 22 BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FAR}L give support to trailing vines, which in generous return hold forth great clusters of wild vintage or flow- ers of strange and bewildering fragrance. Glens, gurgling brooks and harvest fields o'erhung by soft blue skies and floating clouds of gray, bid us note the ravishing charms of nooks, falling waters, shaded pools, the cjuiet restfulness of the distant farmhouse and the farm-hands wending home their weary way. The Divine Artist hath here His studio, the walls of which portray the color scheme of heaven. The floors of this studio are mosaic of inimitable browns, moulded by the ceramic power of volcanic action, carved and sculptured by moving glaciers and the onsweeping cloudburst. We walk on verdant rugs, each pattern original, with no duplicate, and woven from a Divine conception, wrought out and colored b}' the Great Artist, alone or in fellowship with His human children. Each design constantly grows and changes from the stroke of the Orient to the knell of tlie Occident, and through the conserv- ing hours of the night-time. Dost thou know this Divine Artist? Dost thou desire to see Him? The secret of His appearance is in the trees, in the meadows, in the sunlight, and in the Celestial Guidebook, the latter saying: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Enter grandfather's gateway only with a wide open, a pure and reverent vision, and lo, thou wilt behold and see how great trees and climbing vines have, at His call, as it were, brought up from mines below and decorated their leaves and flowers with wondrous rays from flashing gems and gleaming jewels, while BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FAME 23 down the wickerwork of interlacing sunbeams His love hath poured from above a radiance like unto the glories of the Revelation walls of St. John's Celestial City, and its opening gates of pearl. Thus here, in lights and in shadows, in crystal clearness and in veiling mists, the splendors of the World Celestial, k M^ m f;.',..^*^,^ j^/jJIpB^pP^^. ■ ■■■# '" '• A SENTRY TREE. the glories of the World Terrestrial, in color har- monies and in complementary colors, complete a vision of the Mind of God in art. In it the pure in heart see God ! Putting my spade into the ground, I found the low- l_v, wriggling angleworm, burrowing and crawling through dark, earth}- tunnels that soils might be 24 BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FARM. loosened up to air and water ; also making paths for the slender and delicate rootlets, all done that great harvests might be lifted up to the glorj' of God, and for the happiness of the children of men. Thus I found that in the economy of Nature God hath use for the angleworm and it workcth in har- mony with Him. I dare not stop the flight of yonder bee, for it would sting if I did, for, lo ! it is hurrying on its God-sent mission, not only to gather honey sweets for His children, but in carrying the pollen from blossom to blossom that luscious fruits may hang pendant from boughs ladened rich with the blessing of God. Thus I found that in the economy of Nature God hath use for the bee and it worketh in harmony with Him. I beheld birds, while devouring destructive insects, were also ravishing grandfather's blackberry and strawberry patches, unmolested by that dear old man. Winging their way to treetop and hedgerow, they dropped a part of their fruit feast that warbling throats might sing back their happy songs of thanks to God and grandfather for such bounty ; and, behold, the falling fruits took root from their seedlets, and the wildwood gave birth to multitudes of delicious berries. Thus I found that in the economy of Nature God hath use for the birds, and they work in harmonv with Him. Can it be that God, who rejoiceth to labor with angleworm, bee and bird, has no desire and plan to work with even the most lowly and humble of men, BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FARM. 25 exalted far above animal life, yea created in the image of God? Here I read in the Book of Nature that God hath use for every man who will work in harmony with Him. Oh! obscure child of man, be not thou disheart- ened, but get thou in line with God. ]\Iethin1^s that the lowlv bobolink of the meadows A B,A.TIIIN(1 PLACE. and the thrush in the dark shade of the pine tree glean sweeter and more tender joys than does the boisterous eagle on rugged crag and loft\' mountain peak. And so Nature teaches me that the tiny flower, tlie little Ijird and the childlike heart of man, share in the bountiful love from the great, overflowing heart of the b'ather — God. Art thou a chemist? Hast thou the legend of life's m)-stery on grandfather's farm? Tell thou us 26 BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FARM. bv what formulas or processes the dust of the road, the hme of the seasheh, the iron of the hillside and the gurgling waters of the springlet, combining together, become the bodies containing that mystic something called life ! A body pulsating with the love of fatherhood, motherhood, faith in God and hope of immortality. Tell us, thou student of alchemy, by what method the silicon, the carbon and other elements of the min- eral kingdom, at the call of a germ of life in the seed- let, pass into and become the trunk, the branch, the blossom and the fruit of the vegetable kingdom? Again, thou wizard of science, tell us how, at the call of human life, these same transformed elements re- combine and become a part and portion of flesh and blood ? What mysteries run riot in life on grandfather's farm ! Behold \-onder oak. The acorn fell to the ground. 'Tis said 'twas charged with life. Science found in it only earthy matter, and yet earthy matter took root. Life needed light, and from the acorn a little hand went up through earth and mosses to reach the sunbeams, and, throwing out its fingers of leaves, it caught the rays of sunlight, ^^■hy up? WHiy al- ways up after sunbeams? Oh, thou professor of mathematics, in the realm of chance how manv chances are there for the sprout to grow up. And vet acorns always sprout upward to reach the sunlight. Life needed food, and then the rootlets went down- ward from this same acorn. Whv down? And so life's appeal to heaven and earth wrought out a forest Bn.iVTY .IND LIFE ON THE F.IRhf. 27 giant. How? I put my ear t(3 the tree. I heard no sound. I spoke to it and there came Ijack no answer. So tell me, thou scientist, somewhat of the m)-stery of the tree. How does it hunt and go after its own food ? ho ! yonder tree sends forth its roots, which, in catlike silence, hunt its provisions. Thus ON 'inii JIAY. they find their way in the earth to rich deposits of nourishment, that they may, in squirrel fashion, carry stores of strength to the forest king. Who gave them the power of selection, and the tendency to ex- tend toward rich deposits of food ? Who gave this same tree the power and discernment to accumulate between its fibres rich stores of surplus nutriment, 28 BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FARM. in tlie time of its most luxuriant growth, so that it might draw therefrom its nourishment when age and privation beset it? By what mysterious process can the rootlets of the oak tree, when entangled in the earth with the roots of the pine tree and feeding together upon the same elements, always Ijuild oak, while the pine roots in like manner, when fed at the same table, create and rear the pine, while laughing flowers at their feet catch up the same soil and win therefrom their bloom and fragrance? Who set the bounds of their natures, and who en- dows these trees with the power to hunt their forage, select and adapt the same, and then enables them to carry up with such marvelous accuracy the exact proportions for the proper development of trunk, limbs and leaflets ? Hast thou discerned the beauty of the iimer life on grandfather's farm ? The grape vine, how dark, dull and homely, but from its secret inner life, born of God, what luscious vintage and rivers of life burst forth ! As if to teach a stronger lesson, out from the thorn bush, homely and at first repcllant, great rasp- berries and lilackberries come, while from grandma's thorn -crowned cacti the heaven-emblazoned blossoms unfold. It would also seem as if all trees and plants seek immortality, for, unlike animals and humans, thev, uninfluenced by passions or pleasures, seek progeny. With what care tlie oaks fashion the developing acorns, and, charging them with the precious germs BEAUTY AXD LIFE ON THE FARM. 29 of life, they encase them for protection and then cast them forth, that oak-Hfe may glorify the forests of God in ages after the parent tree has crumbled in the mold of the nnderbrush. On grandfather's Ijeach land we find the rough, coarse and homely l)each grass, a division of the Salvation Ami)- of the vegetable world. These often despised grasses seek the drv, hot sands of the summer and the wind-swejjt dunes of the winter. Poorly nourished, their worldly prospects for luxuriant growth are blighted. They are in a class by themselves. Awa_\' from the sanctuary of the woods, the)' join not the beautv and show of rich soils and love-protected gardens, but by choice they battle out their desert lives, that thev mav hold the great sea back and kee]) the wind-drifting sands in place that other grasses and flowers may grow to surpassing beauty and that other fields and gardcTiS may be saved to a wealth of flowers and fruits from which they themselves are forever shut out — steadfast martvrs to the vagrant sands. Pilgrim, as thou dost walk the ocean sand-banks, uncover thy head and thank thy God for the beach grass of the sand dunes. Oh, the m^'steries of life on grandfather's farm ! We leave the interpretation with auA' thoughtful builder, who knows that back of each structure there must be an architect and builder, and that back of all plans there must be a mind. Oh, thou chemist, thou architect, thou Imilder! enter thou upon grand- father's farm with uncovered heads and reverent hearts, for the world's builder is now building there ! 3o BEAUTY AND LIFE ON THE FARM. The Divine Chemist is always in the laboratory of Nature. The Supreme Architect there draws His plans in the fashion of the leaf and in the germ of the seed, while each da\- witnesses the perpetual build- ing up of the temple of Nature. God is manifested in all His works. THE BROOK. BY THE BROOK ON GRAND- FATHER'S FARM. "He cutteth out the rivers among the rocks, and His eye seeth every good thing." — Joh 28:10. To r.E alone with God under the open sky and rest- ing on the bosom of jNIother Earth — it is the sunrise hour of tlie Soul. To be alone with God in the temple of Nature, with its forest processionals, bird choruses and variegated lights streaming in through heavenward windows of waving leaves and swaying branches — it's the ves- per hour of the Soul. As advancing rays of the setting stm strike the bells of closing day, and as sunlit camp-fires against the western horizon hold back the billows of night, when the lamps in overhead skies are being lighted, and as weary birds fl_v home to comforting mates, all prophetic of rest and peace, so weary, tired man, nerve-racked, brain-fagged, with mind begrimed and soul thirsty, finds sweet solace on the bosom of [Mother Earth. Strange affinities ! The babe, with outstretched hands and longing cry, seeks the maternal arms. Is it materialistic affinity, flesh for flesh, or bone for bone; or is it a deeper voice of Nature, in reciprocitv of love ? Mystic harmonies ! We lay ourselves on the lap of ^lother Earth. What BY THE BROOK ON GRAXDFATHER'S FARM. 33 surcease of tension, what great and hoh' rest o'cr- takcs ns ! Perchance we come with tears, but sweet cahii follows. Sleep may there for a time palsv us, but oiu^ e}-es there open to the deep and liolv things of God, for are not the foundations of Ilis eternal hills Ijeneath us and has He not spread over us the canopy of His universe ? IE YACUr HACK. On the bosom of ^Mother Earth ! Do the ma- terialistic elements in our ph}'sical structure simply cr\- out through nerve-ache and weary brain for re- union with former plnsical mates in the earth\- mass beneath us ; or does the spirit of man cry out to the All Present Mind in Nature for a deep and abiding peace ? Thus the homing instinct calls us here. Our throbbing heart, resting on the mosses, finds its doors and windows opening. From the silent world beneath us voices are speaking, silent forms seem to 34 BY THE BROOK ON GRANDFATHER'S FARM. glide into the sacred temple of the soul, while strange lights from the dark world beneath illuminate the mind. A birdlet on near-by swinging grasses hears no voice, while no additional waves of solar light add color to the surrounding day, and yet a darkened soul- house has been here suddenly emptied of black de- spair, while radiant joy and illuminating faith have hand in hand made merry in the tabernacle of the heart, for Mother Earth hath by love tokens called this her tired boy, and her tired boy hath listened. Methinks that voice hath the cadence of the stars, the perfume of the flowerlets, the throbbing of the brooklets, the all-persuasiveness of the all-pervading Father. The Earth Mother said to me: "My boy, will you, for a time, cease your greedy rush after my gold and take time to listen to me about ni}- greater treasures ? Rest here and listen. "Yonder maiden plucking the flowers from my bosom loves the gift. Does she remember the giver, who, through winter and summer, storm and sun- shine, has been building up and feeding this waving outburst of glory to crown her brow ? "Yonder giant oak, now spreading its gladiatorial limbs in athletic sports with every storm, may forget the mother who bore it, the one who nursed and feeds it, and the one to whom it commits its life forces when winter blights it. Perchance the storm, angered by the roughness of this giant's resistance, smites it with the blast of its lightning, and wounded and bleeding it falls to be caught and held on my bosom. It was born of me, it took its strength from me, and, BY THE BROOK O.V GRAMDFATHER-S FARM. 35 grievousl}- smitten b)- the storm-bolt or by passing years, it will surely come back to me. Mother first, mother all through life ; mother at the last, the lips of the leaflets will tell you the story of the Earth Mother love. "Rest here and listen. As but of 3csterday you brought to me the form of your loved sister, that wondrous lover of Nature — she who distilled sweet messages from the grasses, holy promises from the flowers and Divine companionship from the stars and trees. She loved me, and loved mv children, so much that when you brought her to me I opened my arms, receiving her body, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Onlv God can summon from that holv sleep. "I covered her grave with the grasses, I crowned her burial-place with the mosses, I bejewelled her bed with flowers painted by the Divine Artist, and I will keep her who is death-touched until she is God- called ; then I will give her up to Him. "I am the resting-place to whom all the human family will come to await the angels' call, and I am sure that every growing tree and every flying bird will come to me, and entering in, I will hold them hi silence for a time until a bright and glorious morning, when the gates of .glory will open and the angels will come forth with a resurrection call, and then my doors will open and the Redeemed of the Lord will go forth from me. It will be the gala day of the Universe, the marriage sup]ier of the Lamb, and your loved ones will be there. "In the meantime, every hour I am feeding the hungrv, giving water to the thirsty, while innumer- 36 BY THE BROOK OX GR.lXDF,irHER-S FARM. able imiltitudfs of tin_\- insects make their liappy homes with me." And so the ^Mother Earth talked to me. and I learned that she too was a part of God's g'reat plan for the glory gathering of that host which no man can numljer. Thus I saw that tliis was only a part of His plan, for "His paths are in the sea." So, taking a boat, I drifted down Forge River until I heard the waves playing among the sands on the shore, and I said: "This night I will also look for Him in the sea." DRIFTING SEAWARD. "Thy way, O God, is in the sea and Thy path in the great waters." — Psa. 77:19. "The sea is His and He made it." — Psa. 95 15. It was ebb-tide, at the twilight h(jtir, and the ocean breezes, liaving ftiltilled tlieir blcs.sed mission on land, had veered abont and were slowl-,' taking tlieir homeward flight seaward. They seemed re- luctant to leave the s\va)-ing blossoms, golden chal- iced water lilies and meadow distillations, and yet they were seeking their home on the ocean bosom and their rest be\"ond the bar. This night thev joined the outbound tides in the bay, and together they moved silently and calmly towards the Atlantic. j\Iy boat was borne on the bosom of the biay tide, and my throbbing pulses were baptized in breezes charged with the hypnotism of the sea, as they bore on their wings tlie combined and harmonizing aromas of forest and glen. So I drifted in the hush of the evening hour. The quietttde deepened as the land receded. The old farm graduall)' melted away, and the tapestry of the evening mists arose about me, like the whitened robes of myriad guardian angels, ascending until they met the falling curtains of the descending night, in which they seemed to hang their lighted evening lamps, and then to vanish into the heavens beyond. 3r 38 DRIFTING SEAWARD. And so alone I drifted, under the light of God's stars, on the waters of Moriches Bay, breathing the Divine atmosphere of the seas and feeling the deep throb of a rhythmic flood. Yet I was not alone when thus drifting, for, being star-watched, I was God- watched ; being tide-borne, I was God-lifted ; being landlocked, I was God-kept. Scanning the circle of THE RIVER BANK. night about me, I beheld the glimmer of a light, placed by an aged hand in the window of the old farm- house, and then I knew that I was at the meeting- place of two great tides — the tide of God's love, reaching down, and the tide of human love, reaching out. It was a sacred place, rich in holy Cjuiet, where the true child of God with perfect faith can walk with Him on the sea. 39 40 DRIFT IXG SEAWARD. To break such silence seemed almost profanation, and )-et I knew that but one signal of distress would bring instantly to my relief that heroic band of life- savers who, in yonder life-saving station, wrapped now in the shrouds of night, keep eternal vigil at an altar of duty to which they stand pledged to hazard life, if needs be, for the helpless. iNIethinks the Master's eye follows them in their silent nightly patrols and remembers His own solitary \igils on the shores of Galilee's Sea, when He too was out on His patrol to save the lost. "His head was tilled with dew and His locks with the drops of the night." I knew that there v.as one, and, I believe, many more, watching me from the starry heights above. I knew that some one perchance was swinging a great spy- glass, in tlie tower of yonder life-saving station, scan- ning the waters to see that all was well, and then I beheld, in dim outline, the semblance of a human form swinging a lantern on the shore, and I knew that grandfather had come down to the dock and was looking for me. All this told me that so long as God lives, angels watch and human hearts beat, we are environed and envelojDed in love ; and so, rowing towards the love on shore, I got no nearer to it than I was, and God's great love kept pace with me, so that when I tied my boat at the dock I was no further away from His care. I had found the true "lover's lane." His paths are in the sea and I had met Him there. LOVE ON GRANDFATHER'S FARM. "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth Iier chickens under her wings, and ye would not." — I\latt. 23:;!,7. He who notes with c_\-nici,sm the strut and crow of the cock in the barnj/ard should, with tjentler thoug'ht, watch the broochng hen in her tender and heroic care nf the o"ay and careless chiekdets ; she who, in their defense, with perfect abandon of mother love, will dash her body at the opening jaws of ravag- ing dogs or attacking foxes. He who g'azes with admiration upon the camp grounds of the _\-eIlow ant-heap should look within that citadel and view the' oliject of their defenses, their nurseries, filled with l;ab\' ants, with doting at- tendants. How humanlike their guardianship, car- rying forth these little ones to open air in sunn)- nooks and sheltered corners, when bright skies favor and winds are gentle, and back to their underground quarters when chilly Ijreezes arise or overhanging clouds cut off the sunlight. He who tells of the pirates of the air, that raiding hawk of the daylight and that prowding owl of the nighttime, let him behold the devotion of }'onder mother bird, who, with maternal solicitude, builds her nest out as far as possible on the branches, where no murderous animal dare climb to seize her little 42 LOrE ON GRANDFATHER'S FARM. ones, and yet far enough in on the branches for strength to support them. Behold her cover these her treasures when the wild, beating storm chills her and when great blasts of wind toss her to and fro amidst swaying branches and frightful enveloping darkness. What anxiety of love in the wild storm of night, as the faithful mother bird feels the throbbing hearts of her nest- lings, snuggling close under her for safet}-. Sweet is the bird song at the dawn of the morning, when the wild watch is over. Perchance to another home in the bird village great sorrow has come in the tempest. What tragedy there is in the treetops when, by some terrible storm blast, a birdling is missing from the nest. Didst thou ever hear the outcry of the father bird and the mother bird, fluttering and calling over the dead bird- ling? \\'hat love there is in the shrubbery, and what sweet and tender hearts we find in the grasses. Hast thou, with stealth and caution, visited the abode of the birds in the rushes and noted the love and care of the parents, the faithful watching of the mother bird and the long flights of the father bird for food, that he may bring home a bit of grain, a wriggling worm or a luscious cherry? Hast thou ever visited the bird village school and witnessed the patience, care and tenderness of the par- ent birds in teaching their little ones to fly, and also to hunt their provisions? Surel_v love reigns in the feathered parish. But love also redeems ! Under cover of grand- father's house a wild kitten found shelter. No rab- LOI'E OX CRAXPFATHER'S FARM. 43 bit fled faster, and no squirrel was more shv when tirst courted with kindness, but cautiously a little child voiced to it a winsiime call, and the tempting plate of milk taught him that love was in waiting, and soon the little child had him in the arms of affection — a wild child of Nature, subdued by the love of a child of the ?\Iaster. ,r \M)Mi 'lIILk s H\DRA.\GEiS Grandma's h)drangca-s have year by year devel- oped and bloomed with amazing glory, because grand- mother loves them. No fields owned b^' him who hates farming rejoice in the abundant harvests that crown the fields loved bv grandfather. In every flower and fruit God hath left room for improvement under the touch of human love and 44 LOl'E OX GRAXDFATHER'S FARM. effort. Thus He doth encourage and reward our co-operation with Him. To that so-called philosopher who doubts the ex- istence of a beneficent God in creation, and who comes to us with the strange query as to win* sin is in the world to mar its beaut)- and to make sad dis- cord in its harmony, we do but point in return to vegetation and ask him a question : ^^'h\• these par- asites to blast the life and sting the fruits? Is Nature, therefore, malignant in her moods? Oh, thou agnostic, take thou thv pessimistic stand with these parasites in thy garden of weeds and find food for thy thought in malarial atmospheres, and, shutting out the sun by the fog of unbelief, with winged bats and hooting owls of the nighttime for thy music, give thyself over to darkness and to night. Permit me, a Christian optimist, to revel in the joys of the morning, the benedictions of the grasses, the twinkling lights of stellar worlds, the music of sway- ing trees and babbling brooks, with vegetations robed in garments of regal splendor, bedecked with singing birds and dancing sunbeams, and in them all to see the glorious gifts of God. Thy fjlind, ground-mole existence in cold and sor- did matter finds no fellowship with eagle flights, keen-eyed and swift-winged, into loftv atmospheres of blazing glory where God sitteth in the dome of the heavens ! Does thy heart-soil bring forth sorrel? It must therefore hold the acids of unbelief and selfishness. Put thou thereon the sweetening ashes of humility and faith, and the grasses and flowers of joy will spring Lorn ox GR-i.xnF.irniiii-s f.ikm. 4S fortli with praise to Goil and the soil of th)- soul will be reclaimetl. Holding' in mv hand one single kernel of corn, I saw that it hat! in its very nature and structure an NOONTIDE SHAliES. aspiration for a larger, a more useful and a multi- plied life. So I planted that one grain of corn, and lo! there stands before me a stalk from which nature returns to me golden ears of corn wrapped in silken tassels and holding a thousand seed. 46 LOVE ON GRANDFATHER'S FARM. What royal generosity flows through the arteries of Nature ! In one moment of sympathy, I picked up a half- drowned, storm-driven birdlet, and, warming it into life, I again gave it its freedom. With but one thrill of joy, I turned aside and for a time forgot it. But lo! that bird, now with a nest in yonder branches, has sung for me a thousand songs, every one as sin- less as the song of an angel of light and all expressive of the goodness of God. How munificently repaid am I for one act of kind- ness. Grandmother loved her flowers. Bending low over them, we found written all over them that God also loved these same flowers. So grandmother and God together keep these flowers. Into a darkened room, where sickness and despair held sway, a few of these stalks and blossoms found their way. The suft'erer knew that grandmother loved them, and so they spoke of human love, and then the sick one looked again and somehow a sweet vision ap- peared : these flowers seemed, as it were, to change into a beautiful mirror, in which was reflected God, the great and loving designer, angels, the messengers, human hearts, the carriers to one of His children for whom Christ died. The head was too tired then to even read the good old Book ; the heart was too weary for the comforting words of friends ; the nerves could not, as it were, endure even the footfall of loved ones ; but these flowers, God's and grandmother's flowers, LOFE ON CR.-lhrpFATHER'S FAMf. 47 brought quietude of heart, cahnncss of mind and re- newed faith in a Heavenly Father's love, for they were divinely planned chalices, overflowing with the sweetness antl bliss of two worlds' loves. But here opens to us annther great mysterv. Love's WE Twc. wouldn't you? redemption on grandfather's farm ■ is only through atonement. Interwoven in the woods, the vines, the harvest fields and the cattle is the weird but undeni- able law of vicarious sacrifice. Grandmother must give much of her life to her flowers to redeem them to their fullest bloom and fragrance. A lamb breaks from the sheepfold and grandfather must leave the crackling fire on the Colonial hearth- 4$ LOl'E OA' GR.-l.YDF.lTHER-S FARM. stone and S'o out in the cold and thorn bush, following the lamb of the flock in bleak wind and darkness. He . who doubts the law of love's redemption through life's consecration and suffering should fol- low the farmer in ploughing and seed sowing, and then witness the joyous reward of ingathering. Art thou a miner, and hast thou found in mr)untain and valley indications of giild in soil, sand and peb- bles, and didst thou call it "drift" from a main vein?' Didst thou follow on and discover more streaks of gold and traces of glittering ore in rocks that sur- rounded von, and didst thou sa\' in calm assurance the "mother lode" nnist be near? So when we distill love from the dewdrop, find it again in feathered tribes and fur-coated creatures, we sa\^ these are drifts of heavenh- ore, for love is the standard of value in the currency of heaven. When we go fur- ther and see amnng bumans childlike fondness, fath- erly Live, with more holy maternal affection, then we too know that Divine love, the "mother lode," is very near. The God of Love creates the lovelv, and the love in us, for the loveh' makes us love the most lovable, and God is love. THE STORM. "I will give 3"0u rain in dne season." — Lev. 26:4. Nature, with feminine characteristics, hath her mail}- and varialjle moods. With kaleidosco])ic chanj;-e. the cahii quiet of the autumn eve wa.s transformed into the swirls of tlie ,t;'reat equinoctial storm. It seemed as if the o-ates of some Euroclydon had swun'^' snddenl_v open and from "the cave of the winds" there had burst forth all the Furies of an atmospheric devastation ; the Fury of the shipwreck, the Fury that fans the fire of forest conflagrations, the I-'ury that howls under the eaves in the night- time and, haunting the lial:)itation of the hooting owl, moans and sighs in darkened forest and swaying treeto]5s ; now tearing a branch from some noble elm, then, catching unawares some belated and overbur- dened fruit tree, dashes it to the ground, with shriek and laughter. Hath the Solar King of day and the Lunar Queen of the nighttime abdicated their thrones and sur- rendered their beneficent s\\'a\' over all the earth? For lo ! the heavens are inky black, with not even one ra\- of starlight, while under the rule and reign of violence the great sea, which hath so manv days rolled its waves on shore with steady roar and boom, now towering up avalanches of water, hurls itself 49 JO THE STORM. upon the yielding sands, like maddened cavalrj', when stung by a thousand spurs, dashes in blinding fury upon a wavering foe. As the torrents of rain for a moment falter, to give track to a lurid flash of zigzag or forked light- ning, we peer out into the blackness of the night and watch the battle royal as the flying columns of the air attack the entrenched fortresses of the earth. It would seem as if a multitude of Black Spirits were tugging at ever}- tree to dismember it ; were twisting and straining at every rafter to unroof each dwelling; were cavorting about to seize upon and carry away all fences and arbors, while, veiled in darkness, no power could appreliend them. It was a wild night ! It hath been said that in the center of manv great storms there is a calm ; and so we found many calms in the wildness of this autumnal gale. All was calm and peace in the old homestead, for had it not withstood the ragings of the winds well on for two centuries? The teakettle, singing on the hearth, and the kitten, purring at the fireplace, did but illustrate the quiet calm of the household, as the housewife, putting awav the dishes of the evening meal, with trustful thought for her brother in com- mand of an ''ocean liner," sat down bv the fireside. The calmness of quiet faith in the home ! But we knew that this whole storm was environed by calm ! Far above it, in resplendent glory, the sun reigned through the day, and later reflected his glorv by the Queen of the Night, with her retinue of a million stars. THE STORM. s» I'.cneatli the tread of ihe storm cohorts the old, old earth was uiiinoved hy a sin;^le blast, and wavered not at the stroke of conlliet, for "underneath are the everlastincc arms!" Thus we knew that bounds of peace had been set about this maelstrom, and that a power greater than the forces of the wind held them in the "hollow of His hand." AFIER 'HIE iTOKM. It was a strenuous night, followed by a glorious autumn day. Night had slunk away. By the command of an Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient power, the storm had fled and the King of Light, in all His splendor, had reasserted His sway. The life-sav- ing crew on the beach had "turned in," after a weary night's watch, thankful that no wrecks had occurred. Some hollow-hearted trees had been revealed in the crucial test of that stormy night. 52 THE STORM. Hardy young timljer had been developed and strengthened by the athletic tournament in which they had been enlisted. Vapors from decaying vege- tation in lowlands and meadows had been caught up and carried about as food for plant life. The flash of God's lightning had released the nitrogen from THE OLD DOCK. atmospheric combinations, and so plants had been stic- corcd. Thus, as we moved about grandfather's farm, we realized that the storm \\'as beneficent and not malignant, and that angels, and not demons, had it in keeping. For did not God's sun, millions of miles a\^-a^•, call up the waters?' Did He not direct the cold winds that precipitated them, and did not His warm- THE STORM. 53 ing' rays, deflected from the raindrops, give glow to the atmosphere, and so guide its currents? I love the rain, for I know that with it God is filling Nature's fountains from which springs, hrooks and rivulets draw their life. The birds singing by the brooks make me love the God who gives joy to the birds through the waters. The silent dews of the nighttime are His bene- diction upon slender and delicate plants. The gentle showers are His blessing to blooming flowers, trailing vines and luscious fruits. The wild storm, with crashing thunder and streaked lightning, is a ministry of love to all His plantings. The heavy blanket of white snow is His protect- ing covering against winter's cold until springtime calls to floral bloom. Thus the .Storm King is (iod's messenger of life, health and peace, when he visits grandfather's farm. "It isn't raining rain to me 1 It's ranting daffi.nlils. In every dimpled (Imp I see Wild flowers on the hills. "The clonds of gray cngnlf the day, And overwhelm the town ; It isn't raining rain to nie. It's rainnig roses down. "It isn't raining rain to me. But fields of clover bloom, 'Where any buccaneering bee, J\lay find a bed and room. "A health unto the liappy. A fig for him who frets, It isn't raining rain to me, It's raining violets." THE VILLAGE CHURCH. "Thy way, O God, is in the Sanctuary." — Psa. 77:13. It is Sabbath morning on grandfather's farm. All unnecessary labor has ceased, and, with reverent, quiet joy, the day is set apart for family companion- ships, for communion with Nature and for worship of Nature's God. It is a beautiful Sabbath morning. What delicious fragrance all about, as the morning dews, having stayed all the night long in loving em- brace of the flowers, now, startled by approaching day, kiss the blossoms good night, or good morning, and carry up on their breath the fragrance of the mignonette, the hyacinth and a wealth of seductive aromas. "This is the Lord's own day ; I stand alone in the wide field. It is as if a multitude Knelt down and prayed with me." Methought what wondrous fields, what wondrous birds, what wondrous flowers, what wondrous trees in Nature's Oratorio of Praise. No tree was ever accursed. It was one tree — a martyr tree — that took part in the Crucifixion of our Lord. Did it not die first? And has not every tree before and since proclaimed the Glory of God and that poor martyr tree, slain and dragged in death to THE riLLAGE CHURCH. 55 bear the body of our (l\ing Lord, has it not been glor- ified by becoming the symbol of a world's Salvation ? Grandfather calls, and we make ready to attend divine service at the village church. Sacred place ! its belfry beckons to the living, its churchyard holds in sacred trust the bodies of the villag'crs' beloved dead. We gladly joined in the procession of to\ynspeople wending their way to the house of God. The pastor came from the plain but cosy parson- £ge. He was a Godl_\- man, saddened in visage, for was he not the confidant into whose ears were poured and on whose heart were laid the sorrow and cares of the village ; brightened in visage, too, for did he not carry about with him the consolation of the Lord Jesus?' So, in his very likeness, the shadows alrout the cross were tinged as of old hx love's light from the cross. So the pastor came, and with him came the pastoress, wdio, in S)'mpathctic quietude, comforts, consoles and cheers, carrying a brighter face, for she sees of the travail of the pastor's soul and is satisfied. In secret here she shares his cup, as in glory hereafter she will share his crown. So, with reverent hearts, we turned our steps and fol- lowed the leader to the house of God, the village church. Why should there be a church when all Nature is a house of worshi]) and every immortal soul is created to be a temple of God? Ah, we have here love's Ijower in the Garden of God. A church is man's and Nature's combined gift to the glory of the Creator. 56 THE VILLAGE CHURCH. Mother Earth said : "Let me open my bosom for it," and so they furrowed deep the trenches for its resting-place. The rocks and crags cried out: "Use us for His glory," and so from quarries and hillside they laid the foundations. The forests said: "We too would help to proclaim His glory," so great trees poured out their lives that the altar might be lifted up and that it might be roofed in, sheltered and kept, ■\vhile from raging fires and volcanic furnaces the old bell was cast — the bell that now calls to prayer, that rings out the joyous wedding notes, and also tolls for our loved ones here, as celestial choirs sing their wel- comes over there. A church is love's conspiracy to pay affectionate tribute to the (jiver of All Good, and to whose house His children may cijme for pra_\'er and praise. The pastor's wnrds were simple, for we were but ];ilain and simple folk. Somehow, as he in prayer lifted to God the needs of his people, as he sought Divine s}-mpath}- for the weary, heavy-hearted, as the sick were carried by him and left at the feet of the iireat I^h}sician, and there, as he confessed the sins of his people, methought. in the stillness of that sacred hour, that it was not strange that the ]\Iaster forsook the waters of the Jordan, the breezes of (..)li- vet, the sliadv pool of Siloam and turned His feet to the temple of God for heart comfort, where God and the common people of Galilee met ; and so we found here that Jesus was in their midst. The choir loft was not occupied by professional singers of mercenary spirit, but country- }-ouths and maidens did but lead their fathers, mothers, brothers. f^'' ' . ''■ % -1 ■■"' ' ?£• 4 's';-. 58 THE ULLAGE CHURCH. sisters and neighbors in the holy act of praise to God. It was a volunteer choir of praise to Him, just as we heard the birds in their freedom and joy making music for Him in the woods. Thus we worshiped God in the little village church to which the living came and about which in silence sleep the villagers' beloved dead. Memories of their beloved ones, now resting there in the churchyard, came up before these true-hearted worshipers like ra}'s from the setting sun — down below the horizon, earth-concealed, lost to vision, buried from sight, yet lifting up luminous waves of ineffable beauty ; or, like distant stars, which, having ceased to exist in their place and ha\'ing moved on to other orbits, still shed their light upon the earth to cheer and guide. The seruK n v,as ended, the last song was sung, and with the pastoral benediction upon us, we m(j\'ed out, better fitted for a higher enjojment of life on grand- father's farm. THE CHARM OF A SACRED SABBATH ON THE OLD FARM. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a great voiee." — Rev. i :io. Once again it is Sabbath on grandfather's farm. Deep pity for him or her who in the ordinary walks of Hfe Ignores the true import of this day and with thoughtless mien the whole week through moves on in the ceaseless tides of commercial or social life and loses the invstic touch and heart impress of a Sab- bath with God in the wildwood. He who here on Sabbath day gives wings to thought, and, with perfect mental equipose, mounts up above sordid thotights and base ideals, meets the Eternal Mind in all its wonderments, incomprehen- sible but love-eliciting. The imagination, here freed from fancies of com- mercial and social conquests, beholds the artist of all the universe flashing his penciled rays of streaming light through measureless spaces, tracked by orbits of revolving worlds, while He tints the tiny flower with svmpathetic loveliness. Lo ! He rolls the glorious landscape before our vision, framed in an environment of illimitable spaces flooded with solar .glory or studded with multitu- dinous stars. Oh, artist ! wouldst thou paint a picture glowing 59 6o SABBATH ON THE OLD FARM. with eternal love light and breathing the breath of imniortality ? Spend thou one Sabbath alone with God in woody glen and blooming meadows and read the interpretation thereof. There gently flowing waters of cr\-stal clearness la\-e the feet of forest giants and hold on their throb- bing bosoms the pulsating charms of alabastrine lilies, FORl'.E KIVER. while the finny tribe dart here and there in sparkling waters. Setting suns, in herculean protest against ex- tinguishment, roll up against western horizons waves of flashing glories, like bursting gem caskets from a million realms. Oh, musician, thou in whose soul God hath writ- ten His melodies, and whose beating pnlses do but S.IBB.ITH O.V THE OLD P.IRM. 6i keep time with the rhythmic harmony of His sono's in thy Hfe, come ye to grandfather's woods on this God's Holy Day. Shut out the world, and alone with Him, amidst the melodies and harmonies of land, sea and sky, thou wilt give thy soul to ecstasies incited by His divine intonatinns. Thou wilt tliere catch the waves of music rolling in from Nature's choruses as shepherds of old, looking into the starry night, heard angelic voices flood the land and sk}-. Hushed be the unhallowed spirit of Sabbath dese- cration that would enter in to despoil this sacred temple of divine music on grandfather's farm. Oh, chemist ! thou to wln.im we look to learn of God's mysterious and enchanting wa\'S in gathering all the energies and elements of past generations to make more glorious and happv the present and on- coming multitudes, crime thou apart, on this Giid's Holy Dav, in this Divine laboratorv. I\est thou here a while and watcli God's great transformation scenes, as bv His marvelous processes He throws His crea- tive shuttle in fTis works of love and merc\'. All mineral elements are, at His bidding, ^\■ovcn into the fabrics in which are cradled vegetable, animal and spirit life, until bv His dissolving touch the fal^rics fall to eartlu' matter and the spirit arises above all chemical combinations to the great and good God that gave it. Oh, chemist! stop thou for a time th\' devotion to the creating of deadh' expl(.isives, or th\- series of distillations that deljauch the grains and fruits of Nature, to craze the human brain and rob the heart of peace, and, turning aside, catch thou thy stimulus 62 SABBATH ON THE OLD FARM. from the Divine Chemist, whose everv process on grandfatlier's farm is to make more happy and joy- ous the children of His loving care. Oh, thou, electrician and engineer, thou who didst, with great content and joy, devote years of thy life that human professors might impart to thee some por- tion of the meager store of knowledge possessed bv them, step thou aside on this God's Holy Dav and in His wildwood note thou the energies and constructive skill displayed by Him. Lo, His matchless power and wondrous will gen- erate electric currents with swinging worlds and fl_\- ing cornets, while He giveth flight to the bird, gravi- tation to the raindrop and majestic curves and strength to the swa)ing elms. Oh, scientist, wouldst thou hear celestial voices through the audiphone of the soul, or wouldst thou catch wireless messages from realms supernal? Then rest thou here, on this blessed da)-, set apart in love by Him who would speak to thee, and somehow in forest stillness there will be enchanting preachments, and from rustling leaves and rippling brooks there will come to thee ravishing sermoncttes. Out of it all thou wilt have had told thee that back of all life and power, and underneath all construc- tion, there is the Divine Mind and the great pulsating heart of the loving and sympathetic God. He who here would admit the flood-tides of sporting life, on this God's Holy Day, so that boisterous hilari- ties would break the sacred Sabbath watches of the for- est and cruel sportsmen would slay or frighten away nestling birds from loving and dependent birdlets, SABB.irn ON THE old farm. 63 while the charm of God's Ua\- in meadow and upland would lose its hallowed atmosphere for the soul ; he who would thus do would undertake to walk the heavenly pavements with muddy feet, while ang'clic si)irits and redeemed souls from all planetary worlds in heavenly choirs swc])t the stars and all radiant spaces with Halleluiah Clioruscs. Choruses of praise to liim who is the author of all life, the possessdr of all power and the loving giver of a hoh- and sacred Sabbath to a world of tired, heart-hungrv humanitv. To such as defile the Gates of Heaven are closed, and grandfather puts u]) the bars against Sabbath desecration on the old farm. THE TEMPLE IN GRAND- FATHER'S WOODS. ''The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree. the pint- tree and the box tree, together to beautify the place of my Sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glor- ious." — Isa. 60:13. TuRXiX(j aside from the beaten paths on grandfath- er's farm, and enterin ^' the confines of a wooded fairy- land, a melodrama in Xattire, we follow a winding wav throtigh a tunnel of trees, until suddenly we find ourselves, in reverent awe, standing in the midst of a forest cathedral, where nrj Druid circle in grim silence waits, l:)ut where three worlds crijwd in to worship. In this sylvan seclusion, templed of God. meeting with mightv congregations, not sin-stained but glory- crowned, we intruilers prostrate ourselves in silent awe and listen. flighty oaks, called of God from moss-covered groveling acorns, have been here lifted up into ser- ried ccJumns. and have swung the architraves of this, a temple not made with hands. Pilaster after pilaster of cedar, riak and maple lend support to this glorious structure, while over all this wondrous pilation the interlacing leaves and inter- weaving' vines swing their liewitching lacerv. as if to shut in a hol\- of holv, and yet as if to let in the light of ( iod's stars, the homeward flight of God's THE TEMPLE /.V GRANDEAT/IER-S Jl'OOnS. 65 birds and the whispering winds, as they voice at this altar, in varying accents antl in united chorus, the Creator's praise. As Atlas would carry the earth on his shoulders, so here the mineral world, that faithful steward to whose custody the Almighty has entrusted in loving keeping for man such wealth of precious minerals THE WOODS KOAlJ. and flashing gems, becomes a foundation supporting on its patient body and supplying from its arteries the life of the uplifted and uplifting Sanctuary of the woods. Superb carpeting! Human-made looms are mute and silent as the sprites of the air, the lea and the light give their magic touch to the earth. They 66 THE TEMPLE IX GRANDFATHER'S WOODS. breathe upon it with the dews of the morning; they Hash upon it with the torch of the sunbeam ; they feed it witli the ifying seedlets ; they awaken it ; and lo ! the floor of this cathedral is laid with living mo- saics, not carrying the fiery light of ]\Iars, nor yet the selfish color of greedy gold, nor the despairing black of the night watch, but calm, subduing green, the ordained green of the wildwood, while here and there, uplifted flowers, earth-rooted, heaven-painted, bid us by their example to catch our beauty from above, our light from afar and our soul life from the Divine. We rest here in no pulseless Westminster ! The architect of this Nature Temple is not dead. This structure is not a concentric of dead stones, dead tim- bers and dead tile, ^^'oodsman cut it not, for it will bleed ! It breathes, it moves, it grows heavenward. It is a living temple, not fashioned by mortal man. Its glory of to-dav is but a foretaste of the glory of to-morrow, for the glories of this day, being absorbed into its life, burst forth renewed and mingle with the glories of the coming day, while all the denizens of the woods, from the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms, with one accord, and with one uplifted voice, unite here in the Grand Oratorio of the Creator, Preserver and Benefactor, and all of the trees of the fields do clap their hands. And then from a choir loft of waving foliage we heard a bird sing. Hush ! A holy silence fills the mind, while a thrill of sacred joy, like multitudinous phosphorescent lights, makes rich glow upon the hearthstone of the soul, for Ciod is speaking in the wildwood. THE OLD INDIAN TKAIL. 67 68 THE TEMPLE IX GRAXDFATHER' S WOODS. Alone with God in the hving temple of Nature, with e\e keen to see Him in His priestly office, with ear alert to hear the voices of exhortation, counsel and praise, and with all the windows and doorj of the heart w ide open to the breezes and light of heaven — it's the rhapsody hour of the soul ! God is speaking-. Listen ! He speaks not in human words, such impotent and impossible carriers of a single heart-throb, but in Nature's still, small voice, spiritualized by the twilight, illuminated by the sun- light, made liquid b}" the springlets from the bosom of the earth and lifted in adoration by the arms of the forest, for all Nature is here conspiring together to interpret the heart of God. Listen I A father's hand has struck a chord in Nature: "I love mv children," and great trees and beautiful vines, shaking oiT their bridal garments of apple blossoms and prophetic flowerlets, bow and bend in homage under a rich and loving burden of golden and juicy fruitage. God is speaking in the fruits as He always speaks in the flowers, and as He also, in meadow and upland, tells of His love in wav- ing corn, in golden harvest fields and in the trill of the bird song. His trees here shelter us. His mosses here form for us our pillow. His breezes cool our ^vearied brows and tired forms, while His birds sing for us from the tree tops, and also from the meadows on whose bosom sleep a thousand rainbows. Surely the glory of the Lord has tilled the earth, as the waters cover the sea. Hark ! A cry cometh from without. It is a child's cry to a father's heart, calling to us, and we leave THE TEMPLE /.V GRANDFATHER'S ITOODS. 6q this nook in the wiioils and, following an Indian trail, we come within sight of a quaint and strangely interesting Colonial homestead. We enter the door ; the board is spread, grace is being said, for we are late to our Sunday dinner on grandfather's farm. RESURRECTION VOICES ON GRAND- FATHER'S FARM. "Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory?" — First Cor. 15 :55. Hast thou heard the whispers of immortahty from the Hps of the flowers about thee? Their morning expansion and their twihqht folding portray the varying courses of their daily life, but autumn's call in Nature's sadder hour bespeaks an- other and a longer sleep. The short lease of life so effulgent in beauty is over ; petal and stamen, calyx and honey pouch dis- solve and vanish. Not ended, cry the genii of spring- time, for behold in faith the glory of the coming days ! Only believe. ^\'hat pathos there is on the farm at the approach of the winter. \Mio does not feel conflicting emo- tions when Nature puts on her resplendent garments of autumn? This is the last act in the mid-vear fes- tivities — ere the cold grasp of winter divests her of beauty and buries her currents of life in the dark earth beneath her. How calm Nature's abiding in the deathlike silence of winter, awaiting the call of the May budding season for her resurrection to an- other year's glorv. With what strange fascination we bend over the 70 RESURRECT/OX VOICES ON THE FARM. 71 death of the annual flowers, knowing that the frost that kills them does but burst the bonds of the seeds (vhich they planted that their life may arise from the grave in the fields of their fathers. Strange is the autumn commotion among the birds in the treetops. What gatherings and chatterings, what flutterings and calling ! The dear old nests seem all but deserted, the feed- ing places are almost forgotten, while great congresses are called in hedges and bushes. A strange impulse has seized these children of Nature. Something within them has told them that a season of death and de- struction is coming and that "Lo, there is a happy land far, far away," where eternal summers beckon and where flowers always bloom and birds forever sing. The farmer, with a deep longing for a similar destiny, watches these gathered songsters following the impulses of Nature, and then, musing by the fire- place, asks himself the question: 'Tf birds, following the instinct of Nature, move on to perennial joys and everlasting summers, why should not I, as the winter of old age approaches and m}- heart yearns for sum- mer and the vigor of youth, pass to joys that are eternal ? Why should not I believe the same whis- pers of Nature and rest in the hope of immortal re- unions ?" Thus he spoke, and, taking down a cocoon from over the mantle, he remembered how this little cat- erpillar, when quietly feeding on a common cabbage, must have heard a silent voice calling him to get readv for translation to a better and a higher life, 72 RESURRECTION rOICES ON THE FARM. So this worm, crawling down from the plant on which he was feeding, laboriouslv spun his shroud, and when all was ready calmly and quietly entered his tomb, and all was forgotten. Here he waits and only waits for a higher summons, when, bursting forth to a larger, better and winged life — putting on the robes of sunlight and bedecked with all the colors from sparkling gems and flashing jewels — he will soar awav to feed on honeys distilled from flowers of marvelous beauty — his old life forgotten, his new life a superabundance of happiness. Year after year on grandfather's farm I have watched the multitudinous blossom- and fruit-bearing children of Nature living out their sinless testimonies by a joyous life of complete dependence upon the goodness of God, and I have witnessed their anticipa- tions and preparations for the oncoming winter into which they have vanished or fallen asleep. Then I have awaited the resurrection call of the springtime, and lo ! Eden bloomed again, while seemingly the very lairds of Paradise trilled their songs over fen, forest and moor. Then, over and above a thousand philosophies, I knew that God reigned, and that in every line of Nature is written the sweet and sure prophecy of the resurrection. I saw, in our country home, the exquisite beautv of m\' father's life of faith, and there I witnessed the glory of my mother's joyous death in eager confi- dence of a glorified life hereafter, and, over and above a thousand wrecked sophistries, I knew that my Redeemer lived. As autumn flowers devoutlv bend their heads to RESi'RRnCT/ON VOICES ON THE EARM. 73 winter's chill, with faith in the coming springtime, and as birds move out towards summer lands, so mother plumed her spirit's wings for her heavenly flight. The flowers bloomed again. The birds sing in the sunnv lands of the South and the surest philosophy 'IIIE OLD COLONIAL RURYINC, GROUND. of all the ages, the voice of Xature, tells me that my parents are reunited in the summer land of the soul. Do I fear the dawn of that eternal morning when visions of celestial glory shall first burst upon my sight ? The birdlet breaking through its shell into the un- tried life of this present strange world hath instant joy and sweet content in bird-mother love, and bird-mother 74 RESURRECTION VOICES ON THE FARM. love, like the fragrance of the rose and the honey of the flowers, is a gift from God. The tiny squirrel born amidst the dangerous denizens of the forest, but cuddling close to the maternal heart hath no dread or affright, while the brooding hen cover- ing her chickens under her wings did give to the ]\Ias- ter his imagery of Divine love. The loving God of Nature did decree that births into this earth world, where dangers lurk and many hearts are cruel, should be panoplied by protecting love and free from fear and alarm. Has He not by these same tokens undertaken to teach us that when He shall call his children to the birthday of the soul's celestial life in that other world where no dangers invade and where all hearts are tender he will cause their celestial life to open with the sweetness of the flower and with the joy of the bird song at the dawn of the morning? Death is but the door to life ! I fear not the dawn of the eternal day where angels greet and where the loving God stands in the portals keeping watch and guard over all His own. Nature and the Good Old Book tell me that 'T shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness." So also thought the farmer, and, going to the win- dow, he looked out through the small panes of glass towards the old Colonial burying-ground. in which sleep the bodies of his forefathers, and he spoke, in the words of Scripture: "Shall these too live again?" And a voice that speaks in the wildwood, in bird song and in starlight, spoke to the farmer in love and affection; 'T am the resurrection and the THE CRKEK. « 76 RtlSCRRBCT/OX I'OICES ON THE FARM. life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, >et shall he live." Oh ! there is faith in the old homestead, for a voice from within, a voice from without and a voice from on high — with one accord and in Nature's full har- mony — make a pledge of a resurrection hour. And so the farmer sows his seed in faith that in the ful- ness of time the sun will call the buried seed to the full glory of the summer-time, and that he too some day will be called to the better land. BACKWARD HO! "The Master is come and callelh for ihee." — John ii :28. The beauty of the forest, the aromatic fragrance of blossoming flowers, the shadows chased away by sunshine and the ministry of service so sweetly dis- played in panoramic glory on grandfather's farm were correlated to the inner life of that "wondrous lover of Nature," our sister Bessie, lovingly referred to herein. She who here gloried in the wonderful works of God now rejoices amidst the flowers of P^aradise, and in angelic companionships has holy fellowships in the presence of Nature's God. We wondered at her here ! She who loved the bloom of fields and the divine-like whispers of great forests — she who bent in love over the little violets and held sweet converse with the stars, how could she leave regions where Nature's heavenly gifts and holy companionships in country life fed the mind and made the atmosphere of the Eternal the daily climate of the soul? How could she leave all these and, plunging into the crowded city school, devote her hours to the child of the tenement and her ram- bles of love and mcrc}', to paved streets and cit\' air? How could she ? The secret is ours, and we share it with thee. God called her higher, and we laid her away near her father and mother in silent sleep and where her loved flowers bloom. 78 B.lCKU'jrw HO! Returning heavy-hearted with our sorrow, but deep- ly thankful for her joys, my bereaved sisters lovingly handed me her Bible as my heritage — her best trea- sure ! I reverently opened its covers, and there between its pages learned a secret of her inner life that solved that niyster}- of her city living. It read like this : JUiKK'HES BAIHING BEACH. I said. "Let me walk in tlie field." He said, "No; walk in the town." I said, "There are no flowers there." He said, "No flowers, hut a crown." I said. "But the clouds are hlack. There is nothing but noise and din ;" And He wept as He sent me l)ack. "There is more," He said; "there is si I said, "But the air is thick. And fogs are veiling the sun." He answered, "Yet souls are sick And souls in the dark undone." BACKWARD HO! 79 I said, "I shall miss the light, And friends will miss me, they say." He said. "Choose you to-night If I am to miss you or they." I pleaded for time to he given ; He said, "Is it hard to decide? It will not seem hard in heaven 'J'o have followed the steps of your guide." We loved her here, but understood her not ! So now, with her open Uible before me and with the call of the city reaching us, can we wonder as to what 1he true mission of the Nature-lover is? Look- ing further into the recesses of that now doubly sacred book, I found hidden therein another cjuotation : "A little girl at her evening pra)'er was heard to say : 'And I saw a poor little girl on the street to- day, cold and barefooted, but it is none of our busi- ness, is it, God?' " "None of our business!" wandering and sinful. All through the streets of the city they go, Hungry and homeless in the wild weather — "None of our business!" Dare we say so? "None of our business!" children's wan faces. Haggard and old with their suffering and sin; Hold fast your darlings on tender, warm bosoms, Sorrow without, but the homelight within. What does it matter that some other woman — Some common mother — in bitter despair, Wails in a garret or sits in a cellar Too broken-hearted for weeping or prayer? "None of our business !" sinful and fallen. How they may jostle us close on the street I Hold back your garment ! Scorn ! They are used to it ; Pass on the other side lest you should meet. 8o BACKWARD HO! "None of our business!" On then the music: On with the feasting, though hearts break forlorn; Somebody's hungry, somebody's freezing. Somebody's soul will be lost ere the morn. Somebody's dying — On with the dancing ! One for earth's pottage is selling his soul ; One for a bauble has bartered his birthright, Selling his all for a pitiful dole. THE LIFE-SAVIiNT, CHEW, UNCI E EZRA H.AWKINS IN CO.M.MAND. Ah ! but one goeth abroad on the mountains. Over lone deserts, with burning, deep sands. Seeking the lost ones (it is His business!) Bruised though His feet are and torn though His hands I Thorn-crowned His head and His soul sorrow-stricken (Saving men's souls at such infinite cost) : Broken His heart for the grief of the nations — It is His business, saving the lost! Duty calls us away. It is God's call. The vacation ends, the trunks are packed, one more walk in the BACKll'.lRD HO! 8i forest, one more sail on the bay, one more farewell to loved ones. We watched the waving of the hands, we heard the receding songs of the birds ; an old gray squirrel ran to the topmost branches of a great tree to see us off; and another chapter of life's joys had been written, bound and filed away on memory's shelves, to which we go from time to time in "the quiet hour" and revel again in the sweet and loved recollections of grandfather's farm. Celestial Phones or Voices from the Invisible CONTENTS Anticipatory . . = . . S Prelude . . . . . .6 Interlude ..... 7 postlude . . . . . -9 Within the Sheen . , , 11 Our Vanished Loved Ones . . -31 A Vision by the Sea . . . 62 ANTICIPATORY. Fellow Pilgrim : Christmas — Easter — the Setting Sun and the Star- ht Xight — speak to us in the mystic melody of silent in- tonations, causing no sound vibrations, yet transmit- ting their sweet messages to the innermost soul, just as \\ e are l)ound to each other by golden cords of Chris- tian Brotherhood, immaterial and invisible, yet stronger than links of steel. Please open this book and visit with me that most real place of all, commonly called " the unreal." You will see invisible forms, hear noiseless footfalls, feel the touch of spirits, and, I trust, partake of heavenly calm. Yours in Him, S. L. Mersiion". MONTCLAIR, N. J. PRELUDE. A SHORT time since, I took ship at Providence, Rhode Island, at evening tide. The steamer carried over one thousand souls. As we moved down the river and out into the deep, joy, animation, and mtisic filled that gliding palace, while pyramids of electric lamps poured a flood of golden light upon us in the cabin. I moved out upon the deck, and all was dark. Great angry billow s rolled tempestuously about us, while rushing winds tore their way over the hurricane deck. It was a wild storm without. It was all peace and joy within. Strange phenomenon ! \\"hy, amidst such a storm, should there be such a calm ? Ah ! something weird was placing with the hearts of men. It held us mentally, as it were, in a Haven of Calms, landlocked from a raging sea of fear. There was supreme faith in an iivz'isiblc pilot at the wheel. Something above reason saw something beyond the range of vision, " as seeing Him who is invisible," and we were at rest. INTERLUDE. I FOUND my way into a " Home for the Deaf and Dumb," and there I met a man in the middle of hfe who once was in perfect physical condition, but now deaf, dumb, and blind. Eyes sightless. — The beauties of the world are en- tirely shut out. Ears soundless. — The melodies, symphonies, and harmonies of love and life are mute or dead at that golden highway to the soul. Tongue s[>ceeliless. — A pent-up mind, starved of love's messages and life's beauties, is not even per- mitted to relieve itself by one outcry of despair. A soul in solitary confinement, enshrined in the hor- ror of perpetual night and locked in the maddening hall of ceaseless silence ! He seemed like a strange and silent craft taking its mysterious wa}' in solitude over the darkened sea of human life. I said to a friend, " What a prisoner ! "' My friend replied, " Ah ! but he is the happiest man here." " How do you know ? " I responded. " Ask him, and he cannot hear. He has no voice to tell you, and those sightless eyes arc expressionless." "Wait a moment," he replied; and taking hold of this strange being's hand he, by an appeal to the sense 7 8 IXTERLL'DE. of touch, made in that hand signs which I knew were from the language of the deaf and dumlj. My friend told him that I thought he must be un- happy, and requested him to send a message for me that would explain how it was that I was mistaken. As the sun suddenly bursts through a rift in the clouds overhanging a dark and turbid sea. so the ra- diance of an ineffable light billowed the place where A\e stood, as there flashed back a message translated for me from mystic signals. " I am simply \\aiting for the time when these eves shall be opened and I shall see the King in His glory : these ears shall be unstopped and I shall hear the heavenly music : and this tongue shall be loosened and I shall sing of Him who hath redeemed me from my sins." He was dwelling on the border-line between two \\'orlds, with windows open toward Jerusalem ; and he evidently saw something beyond the vale. POSTLUDE. I HAD purchased a ticket at Cleveland for Chicago and was comfortably seated in a sleeping car when suddenly, as we left the depot, a strange feeling of alarm came over me. I could not shake it off. As the conductor came through the train I inquired of him whether we stopped again within or near the city, as I desired to leave the train. He answered " No." I was deeply stirred, for something said clearly, dis- tinctly, and repeatedly to me, " You are in great dan- ger." Soon, with the train rushing along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, I fully realized that I was helpless — and yet that warning ! There was but one refuge : " There is a calm, a sure retreat, 'Tis found beneath the Mercy Seat." I bowed my head in prayer and asked God for special protection from disaster. Just at that moment there was a crash. I was sitting in Section Six, the upper compartment of which was hinged exceptionally low. The springs on that berth had broken. The shaking of the cars loosened the catch, and the whole berth, loaded with bedding and side boards, fell to the ends of the guard chains with terrible force, crushing my stiff hat ; but lo POSTLUDll. as my head was bowed in prayer I escaped what otherwise must have Ijeen a fatal blow. The conductor sprang to me and exclaimed, " I thought you were killed.'' No; a voice had spoken to me. \Mience came it? . WITHIN THE SHEEN. Will you link your imag-ination with mine and fly with me into the distant past? — yet not very far. I would have }'0u stand with me on the hilltop where the Cit}- of Dotlian is built on one of nature's pin- nacles, and from that high point I w ould have \'0U look over a fertile vallej' robed in the lu.xurious verdure of unsmitten Palestine. As the blackness of night has swept in over motmtain and vale, and the city has fallen into slumber, I would have you watch while the chariots and horsemen of cruel S\'ria of the north come silently as possible, drawing their iron net of war about the unconscious little city in which abode Elisha the man of God. Invading warriors polished their spears that they might the more surely reach in vindictive hate the beat- ing hearts of fellow-men ; while the sword was whetted that it might cut the more readily through nerves and sinews, to turn loving wives into widowhood, and children into orphans, or worse — yea, far worse were the awful thoughts that blazed in the hearts of the war- calloused veterans waiting for the dawning day ere they should sack the little city. With the first FLASHING R.WS OF LIGHT gleaming over the distant hilltops the wild cry of alarm bestirs the city, while its sons flock to its walls in (.lis- 13 U'lTHIX THE SHEEM. mav. Among them is a young man, the servant of the prophet Elisha, \\ho, having caught the infection of the panic, rushes back to his master with the de- spairing crv, " Alas, my master! How shall we do.'' " We would listen, as calmly amidst the fearful tu- mult the old man replies, " Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." Then, falling on his knees, the old man sweetly prated, saving, " Lord, I prav thee open his eyes that he may sec" And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and lie saze — " And behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around about Elisha." Somehow the Syrian host vanished from the young man's mind : the terror-stricken crowd, surg- ing through the narrow streets of the city, was for- gotten ; and the young man, with a soul glance into the invisilile world, saw eternal verities and witnessed omnipotent pow er surging about God's servant in de- fensive phalanxes. Praver-called — Heaven-sent — Love-commanded, the celestial army lay in the calm curtainings of the spirit- ual world, separated by the simple veiling of human limitations from the wild concourse of the terror- stricken crowd. I would also have you read with me from that po- etical gem in Hebrew prophecy, the book of Joel, while we consider the promise contained therein, that the Holy Spirit shall appear in all His heavenly light in this world of ours, when the daughters shall proph- esy, and the old men shall dream dreams, and the young men shall see visions. Does it seem incredil.)le to thee that God should re- U'lTHIX THE SHEEy. 13 veal Himself to His children b}- other means than that of the ph)-sical sense of sound or sight ? When in that SUBLIME TRANSFIGURATION HOUR a voice from the invisible world cleft the clouds, sav- ing, " This is ni}' beloved Son ; hear Him," it was not to reveal the heart of God the Father to Christ, l>ut that the Saviour might be magnified before men as the in- carnation of divine life. Christ did not need that at- testing voice, for He already knew His oneness with the Father ; but gross, sensuous, materialistic men needed once for all the revelation of the invisible to human senses — hence, that voice of identification from the clouds. The deepest revelations of love and tenderness made to our dear ones are manifest the most when unseen by human eye and unheard by human ear. Wilt thou denv to the deaf and blind child the sweet ministries of mother love because he cannot hear or see? r)r will }'0u permit them in heart language, known only to each other, to develop stronger, deeper, and holier ties than we know of — made more intense because of these very impediments ? Knowdedge shuts out the necessity for sight and sound. " Sweet voices come to eveiA' ear, Bright visions to all ej'es appear. The touch divine each soul may feel, And God in us Himself reveal. We see Him in each beam of light. His are the voices of the night, The myriad stars that shine on high Record His name across the sky. 14 WITHIN THE SHEEN. " But brighter far the gems that shine Upon the pages all divine; The geras of truth that gleam afar More brilliant than the brightest star. To His inviting words give heed, And listen when He deigns to plead; Hear what those heavenly voices say, And every gracious call obey." Under the spell of divine infltiences a man may close his eyes, and there will iloat before his spiritual vision scenes of such transcendent splendor that the tongue will fail and language must break down in all attempts to reveal the scene; while in the corridors of the soul angelic voices will ring and the language of heaven will float by melodies rippling in from celestial seas of song. Has God entered into thv life ? Then let us for a moment stop straining our eyes for Him along the highway of the clouds ; and our gazing down the paths through meadows and forests. Entering into the heart, we will close the door, pull down the cur- tains, stir the embers of love on the hearthstone of the affections, for He is within, a resident of the sotil. Hast thou prepared well the furnishings? When love and purity preside in thy heart, then thou wilt hang on the walls of memory, that most sublime of all picture galleries, only scenes of holy jo}-, while the niti- sic of thy thoughts, as they sound the measure of thy spirit, will but bring thee into closer communion with Him who enters into the guest chamfier of thy heart. Guard well thy guest, keeping out all that \\ ould tend to mar His joy or make unhappy His stay. The prophet Joel teaches us that the day shall come WITHIN THE SHEEN. IS w hen the servants of the Lord may have in this world heaven's atmosphere without them and heaven's ch- mate within them, and, being engulfed therein', they shall float therein as a casket filled to the brim floats in the great tide of the sea. As that GLORIOUS Pk0^[ISE BURSTS FORTH from the stereopticon of prophecy I would have you catch its picture on the screen of history, so I would add to our vista that marvelous revelation, when in the fullness of time there eaiiie that baptism of the Holy Ghost upon the waiting Church. Then Pentecost stood out before the world : the cr\-stalline throne to which the invisible but unmistakably present Holy Spirit came, as He assumed the sway and directed the influences that were to guide the Church of God into all truth, the child of God into all light, and the world to the foot of the Cross. I would ask vou now to forget the limbs that bind us to the ground ; the stomach that seeks the orchard, the harvest field, and the vineyard ; the lungs that make their appeal to the air; and, higher up, the eye that claims the :esthetical and clings to the beautiful in na- ture : but flee with me up into that observatory where all revelation must come 1)y soul vision and spiritual emotion — where, alone, thou art divorced from the earth, eartlix', and can take thine outlook upon the great sea of the Infinite. Soon all that is visible and tangible in thee will sink back into the earth, pass away into the air, and make its journev to the sea; excepting only that part of thee which is the flashing spark from the infinite flame of 1 6 ll'ITHIX THE SHEEy. divine thought ; that must pass again somewhere into the invisible realm. Ponder, then, with me as to what are these invisible forces that are constantly surging against us. How can we let into our souls the blessed emotions that are sweeping about us, and how can \\ e link thereto the holy emotions that are playing within us? Two worlds have floated in together, and lie broad- side to broadside. How are the bridges of thought to be thrown across? Are they ever thrown across, car- rying messengers from each to the other? The stars, hundreds of millions of miles away, speak- to us without a voice. Alen who disappeared a thou- sand years ago still help to shape the thought of the world. They shot into the world, ran along on its sur- face for threescore years and ten, and then glanced off into the Invisible ; but, while gone, are in fact to-day molding the minds of men. The Almighty God. in- finite, eternal, the Creator of all things, is by some sup- posed to be imprisoned in a celestial city, walled in bv His own hands. Having completed the superb work- manship of a world that He has been building up through all the ages, has He at last left man — His highest creation — alone and helpless on top of this marvelous structure, beyond the reach of his blas- ter's voice and with no visible escape ? ^^'hen man at last drops off "Where ? where ? or nowhere 'f Can anyone sincerely ask the question. " Is there a God in the world?" This is a question easilv pro- pounded and quickly answered. Come with me to Newport, and let us wander into that old and tenant- less tower. If I should exclaim, " This structure is IJirHIX THE SHEEN. 17 a freak of nature, and was ne\'er built by human hands ! " yon would challeng-e the rash statement and then demonstrate that from the general plan of the edi- fice and its adaptation to man's requirements it must have been designed by an intelligent mind and con- structed by human hands for human occupation. I transcribe to my tourist notebook your argument, and simply change the word " tower " to " «"orld," and the words " architect and builder " to " God," and rest my case on your own logic as to whether there is a God in this world. In that similitude we but widen out the thought un- der the same infallible rules of proof. A line that runs straight for the distance of a mile, when carried forward will be straight to the realms be- yond the farthest star. Pantheism exalts the design. Christianity worships the designer back and above the design. Pantheism glorifies the house. Christianity crowns the architect and builder of the house. The house in which you live is but an imperfect rep- resentation of a luminous picture in the mind of your architect. It is but a soul vision caught in wood and mortar. No chemist by anal}'zing it, and no scientist b)- rending it apart, can discover the thought which permeated it or the mind that inspired it. The architect is in the building, and yet he is not of the building. The world is the matchless expression of matchless thought — the mightv design of the Almighty Designer. The logic of tiie house is but the logic of nature. " The heavens declare the glorv of God and the l8 WITH IX THE SHEEX. firmament showeth His handiwork. Dav unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth forth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." l.et us take the wings of the morning, and fly up. up, and see if we cannot distill from the clouds sweet wdiispers of love ; from the sun's ra\s melodies rich with divine heart-throhs as they vibrate, having been touched for us by the unseen fingers of God. I believe that back of the rustling of the leaves of the trees of the forest, back of the stars singing together, back of all nature's melodies, we find the blaster ^lind of all the universe sitting in the great dome of heaven, from whose chimes ring out nattire's harmonies. Let tis climb up the winding stairs of faith, and we, the ch.il- dren of the Musician, standing at His side, will see Him bend over to us. and will hear Him speak the sw eet words of father love that are lietter, grander, and holier sounds than those which with rush and roar sweep through nature's vaulted temple, though the former are heard only by His children standing at His side. (~rod of the universe, God of father, mother — our (lod — speak this hour to us through Thy Holy Spirit for the Christ's sake. Sometimes as wx contemplate the vastness of nature and the overwhelming power of Almighty God, the heart cries out, " Does He care for poor insignificant me? Am I not lost track of by Him in the vast surg- ing tide and ceaseless flow of humanity? " So I inaud- ibly spoke in solitude amidst the shadows of a mighty forest, when a little violet, nestling under a sheltering rock, replied to me, and said to my soul: " The great WITHIN THE SHEEN. 19 sun cares for me. I draw from it my life, my beauty, and my fragrance. There is but one sun to me, and it acts as if I am the only violet ; for it fills and satisfies my whole nature. One supreme joy, however, is nxine, that while not robbing me in the least, there is enough of m_\- sun for all the other violets, and so it and I live, but not I, for it liveth in me." Thus I discovered that the mission of the great sun in the physical world is but a partial expression of tlie mission of Jesus the Christ in the spiritual world. It redeems out of darkness and death and exalts to life and light. " God of the granite and the rose. Soul of the sparrow and the bee, The might)' tide of being flows, Through all Thy creatures, o?it from Thee. It leaps to life in grass and flowers; Through every grade of being runs, Till from creation's radiant towers Its glory streams in stars and suns. " God of the granite and the rose, Soul of the si:iarro\\' and tlie bee, The mighty tide of being flows. Through all Th}^ creatures, back to Thee. Thus round and round the circle runs. An endless sea without a shore, Till men and angels, stars and suns. Unite to praise Thee evermore." ,So I find all nature spiritualized. As the sun in the midst of the great solar system, \\ ith all its infinite number of planetary and meteoric bodies charged with a natural trend toward " outer darkness," is gradually drawing and drawing them to itself, so the Sun of 20 WITHIN THE SHEEN. Righteousness stands in the midst of hfe, with all His magnetic power gradually but surely drawing the natu- rally wayward sons of men to Himself. The two con- tending forces in the physical world are typical of the two mightier contending forces in the spiritual worUl. The soul of man is too large for its earthly taber- nacle of clay called the human body : hence, the latter falls into dissolution in the short space of threescore years and ten, while the immortal life within moves on in co-existence with the eternal Creator of all things. The mind of man is too capacious of vision to be alone dependent upon the optic nerves for sight, and too fond of music and converse to be limited b}' the auricular channels to the mind. So we find the blind seeing and the deaf hearing through strange channels and along mysterious highways. Man sees visions beyond the vista of physical sight. He hears amidst the sacred silences of his soul's temple, while silent stars speak to him of God, and the rocks and flowers voice to him the messages of infinite power and love. Man's inner nature hungers so keenlv in the hours of his loftiest aspirations that physical appetite is forgot- ten while the soul craves sympathy and feeds tipon love and hope. He feels the touch of kindred spirits without calling into play nerves of sensation. So divine-like is man in the midst of the sacred bow- ers of his own Eden home that he calls into existence immortal life, and the children of his love live on for- ever. Such human life is awfulh' grand ! WITHIN THE SHEEN. 21 In length it is henceforth co-existent with God. In height it reaches up to the foot of the eternal throne, while in depth who can sound it with the line of love or fathom it with the plummet of black despair? Is not man's nature too exalted to be satisfied with sin? Should not the soul of every rational being abhor sin ? The protest of truth against sin is like the protest of the Muses against malignant discords in Sacred Ora- torios. The protest of virtue against vice is like the protest of the spirit of music against the ruthless barbarism that would seize the harp strings while they are vibrat- ing with the soul's most sacred emotions and would convert them into snares for rats, lizards, and serpents. How can it be possible for God to arrange, classify, and determine the moral accountability of each indi- vidual in this mighty army of humanity which has passed, is passing, and will pass through the ages out of this world into eternity? So much of heredity, en- vironment, physical and mental weakness having operated to warp and twist the moral natures, how can moral responsibility be fixed ? I have learned a great lesson from the sea, which explains how the greatest physical law in nature — gravitation — illustrates what may be the working of the wonderful law of final judgment. Far out where the ocean is fathomless, like the sea of eternity, to human thinking, from all directions there flows in from time to time the debris of the world. All manner of materials, of varying shapes, 22 WITHIN THE SHEEN. sizes, and weights, perchance pass together out and down into the deep, but each to its proper level liy that law of gravitation wliich by divine decree passes mi- erring judgment on the specific gravity of all. Is it more strange that the Creator of all should have and enforce a law' of moral accountal)ility that would give to the highest virtues the greatest rewards and to the deepest vices the deepest condemnation ? It seems to me that as I look through the open doors of the vegetable anfl animal worlds I behold this same awful moral conflict raging amidst the trees of the forest, the fruits of the orchard, and the flowers of the garden. At the same time the animal world, strug- gling in a pandemonium of horrors, appears to reveal the fact that all nature does verilv groan and travail in pain until now. There are two forces in nature — the Benevolent and the Malevolent. A power in nature plants a tree for luscious fruitage ; thereupon a force in nature sends the insects to suck its life, blight its flow ers, and sting its fruit. The desire of certain dogs to kill birds of heavenly plumage and angelic song originated not in the ten- der heart of God. The disposition of the cat, when hunger is satisfied, to amuse itself with the dying agonies of a mouse, rending it limb from limb, is not of Him who watch- eth the sparrow when it falls. So pondering, I disco\-er that ^vhile hateful treat- ment develops viciousness in the horse and dog, and while neglect destroys the orchard and vinevard, lov- ing care brings the spirit of gentleness to the brute and WITHIN THE SHEEN. 23 self-sacrificing labor protluces the highest vintage. So love redeems all nature and becomes the shield against the forces that make for evil and death, and lifts to a higher and better life the recipients of its care. A poorly clad, poverty-stricken, orphaned appren- tice, da}' after day, on his way to work, watched the un- equal struggle of certain wild flowers for existence against choking weeds and crowding larambles. Learning to love them, through S3'mpathv he lifted the plants, one by one, from their dreary places and replanted them in his little garden under the shelter of a great stone fence, which protected them from the blasts of the north wind, while they drank in the life- giving rays of the sun. When the heavens withheld for a space their dews, he watered them from the nearby spring, while \\ ith tender hands he nourished their roots and guarded their beds. ^lonth by month and year by year love's nurture developed richer bloom and lovelier flowers, imtil the gardener, now an old man, standing in the midst of his floral bowers and leaning on his staff, said, " Lo, I have redeemed these wild flowers to their perfection bv love and have crucified myself to the outside world all the days of my life that I might cause them to at- tain to and express in their lives the Master's true de- sign, which He implanted in their natures. I wonder if I am not a Christ to these flowers, having given my life to them Ijecause of love that they might be re- deemed to God's great plan? " And so he gave them back to God in all their beauty, for he believed not that heresy that any one of them 24 WITHIN THE SHEEN. " Is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air," for they were all in God's great garden, and He who created them and who is the lover of the lowly, and ever in his world, witnessed here a type of Geth- semane and Calvary in a little floral world which had been redeemed by vicarious love. The little girl playing in the wild woods found the hidden little offspring of the wild cat. Taking the group of kittens to her home, she brooded over them with sweet childish love which they at times resented, but ttiore often reciprocated. Later in life she, then a matron, loved and petted the descendants of her first charge, while in the evening-tide of her aged life, sitting in the old armchair, with the family pet of a much later generation mewing by the fireside, she thought, " I wonder if I too have not redeemed this generation by love, and have I not put back into that nature some of the spirit of God — see how this kitten loves me." If we can charge inanimate nature with the forces of evil, how reasonable it is to believe that we can im- plant in animate nature the spirit of good ! Surelv in the day of this world's final glory we shall witness the fulfillment of the prophet's vision in which the lambs rested with the ravenous beasts, then re- deemed. The trees of the fields will then clap their hands amidst blossoming bowers, while parched des- erts will burst forth in floral bloom, for all creation, animal, vegetable, and mineral, has groaned and travailed in pain for that hour of the New Birth. WITHIN THE SHEEN. 25 Snrel_y a New Earth will be the offspring- of vicarious and redemptive love. In that day the jMaster \\ ill see of the travail of His soul and will be satisfied. The Creator of all thing-s gave iron to man as one of his Ijlessings. Iron is charged with God's love. and yet the assassin forges from it the stiletto. If righteousness and evil so contend in inanimate ob- jects as well as in the highest order of creation, why may we not see the same fearful conflict everywhere, including, as a participant, the serpent in the Garden of Eden ? A few facts are demonstrated in this connection. There is a power in the animal and vegetaljle world that makes for life. There is a force in the animal and vegetable world that makes for death. The conflict between them is incessant. Love has redeeming and exalting power wherever applied. All animate creation seeks eternal life — either through rootlet or seedlet. While the vegetable and animal kingdoms, amenal)le to this universal law that makes for everlasting life, are satisfied through offspring, this is not so of the soul that is born of God. That soul is a divine entity. No inanimate matter has ever been annihilated. There is no such thing as aimihilation in the universe of God. Scientifically, disappearance never means destruc- 26 WITHIN THE SHEEN. tion, and, logically, ignorance of our own destiny can never imply the destruction of the soul. Truth is what we seek, and truth we must discover ! The most inscrutable mystery in all creation is man's terrible responsibility to know the truth. Nature know s no pardon for ignorance and no leni- ency for error. Ignorance of too high pressure in a steam boiler never saved an engineer from an explo- sion. Error in under-calculating the force of the wind never saved a sailor from death. Our cemeteries, with many of our loved ones, sent there to untimelv graves, are silent witnesses to the inaccuracy of human thought and errancy in human calculations. In the moral realm the same fearful responsibility seems to attach itself to error in thought. The sea of spiritual life on this planet is crowded with moral wrecks stranded or engulfed because of honestly intended but ignorant moral instruction at home, in the school, and in the church. If ignorance is a doorway through which death stalks and seizes our children ; if error in instruction does damn the morals of our sons and daughters, w hat may be the fate of our own immortal existence by the application of erroneous thought to that most sacred of all trusts committed to our thinking — OUR SPIRITUAL DESTINY? In the moral realm ignorance stands for danger, and error is synonymous with death ! Let us, then, with supreme fidelity to the cause of truth, and with minds appreciative of such a stupen- WITH IX THE SHEEN. 27 clous responsiljility, move further along the line of in- quiry which is so tragically important to universal man. The world concedes the presence of a supreme mind in this great universe, yet there are many who seem to think that it is irrational to helieve that the human mind can be put in such accord with the divine mind that the latter can actually control and direct the for- mer. These very ones will admit that the desire and in- fluence of such a supreme mind must be and are toward the highest and best good, and yet they deny the pos- sibility of divine control over human minds. The teaching of our blessed Lord was that by the submis- sion of the human will to the divine there would come into the life of man the overruling mind of God. The objectors to this proposition have been present in audiences when some operator possessing great power of will and thought has, through z'uliiiitary sub- iiilssioii of the will of his subject, caused the latter to think his thoughts and perform his deeds. AVliy, then, does it seem to anyone incredible that the Supreme Mind of all the universe should influence the consenting mind, but lovingly permit it to exercise freedom of will should it desire to release itself even from the control of infinite love? If we call upon Him who is invisible, can He answer by active interposition in human affairs ? One barrier — to many minds, an insurmountable one — seems to intervene. Can He set aside the " laws of nature" in response to the pleading of His children? Thought rules matter, untrammeled, irresistible ; and 28 WITHIN THE SHEEN. thought is moved and swayed by love. Of this we are daily witnesses. Sitting in my library, with one of my children play- ing on the floor, I am suddenly startled by my child's piercing cry for protection, as a book case comes " toppling over." Terrible situation! All the " inexoraljle laws" of materialistic nature are at work to make sure the de- struction of that child before my very eyes. The book case is falling in strict accord with the " laws of gravitation." I am held fast by " the force of inertia, which causes all matter at rest to remain at rest." Can I work a miracle and set aside nature's laws in answer to that child's cry to my father heart? SOilETIIIXG ACTS ! What is it? Matter? Ah, no! a force called mind acts on matter. It has no fulcrum and no leverage. It ignores all natural rules of attraction and repulsion. No law in matter applies to it, but by behest of will it causes a human arm of many pounds' weight to move. That immaterial, invisible, and indefinable something called mind sways matter in the human arm, intercepts the laws of gravitation, nullifies the power of inertia, all in answer to a child's prayer to a human father's heart. j\Iind caused that motion — mind governed that mic- tion, and the laws of nature became simply the obedi- ent slaves to its will. IMind in the human body by its wdll-power controls the laws of its limited phvsical be- ing, just as the same natural laws in wider cvcles are governed and controlled bv an infinite mind — even the WITHIN THE SHEEN. 29 mind of God. Surely the servant is not greater than his Lord. Man, however, turned his back on God at the dawn of human history, and then w as witnessed the carnival of sin from which the human race has been struggling to find its way back. When first amidst the wealth of primeval forests and floral beauty man appeared and became the abode of the first human thought, that being must have been sinless. A moment, a period of time, existed in that first life before the spirit of rebellion to moral law seized upon him. Perchance he poised on that sub- lime height for but a single moment, but in that poise PURITY WAS REGNANT. Then came " the fall." Some say that there was no "fall," but that there was an evolutionary rise. We accept that dictum. Thus by sin man was lifted from the Elysian fields of purity where he had reveled in the sweet smiles of his soul's approval. He was by sin exalted from the benignant atmosphere of heavenly perfection to the bleak mountain heights where the rough crags and rugged caverns of abutting and de- coying sin have e'er since in delusive mockery mad- dened the soul. They have benumbed by their sear- ing scars the delicate sensibilities of his original spirit- ual life. That sweet angel. Heredity, whose blissful mission it is to gather up all the blessed fruit germ.s of each generation and strew them as seed in the harvest fields of oncoming multitudes, has found her plantings 30 WITHIN THE SHEEN. mixed with the tares of a poisoned and polkited growth. Thus conscience became almost mute ; thought took on its selfish bias ; superstition enveloped the race and the black horrors of antediluvian and subsequent ages swept in upon a world. From this moral debris man cried out wildly for help. The " soul of nature " had sent to man the cooling sea breezes, and he in turn worshiped THE LE\'I.\TH.\XS OF THE DEEP. The " world's life " had given to man the beasts of the fields to bear his burdens and to satisfy his hunger. Appeasing the latter for the moment, the cravings of man's spiritual nature bent his knees in worship to the brutes. So while the intelligence, love, and tender- ness of " a great predominating unity in nature " spoke to humanity through forests, flowers, and spar- kling streams, a great cr}- of despair went up from the universal man who had been blinded and depraved by sin. Out from amidst the smoke of human sacrifices the ■ gurgling waters of the bloody Ganges and a thousand - horrible forms of insane worship, a great weird and agonized chorus of misery flooded the heavens. God knew that the human race, cursed by its own sins, could find no story of redemption in nature, and was sinking into the bottomless abyss of certain tleath. A new voice to speak in nature became necessarv. The occasion demanded a new voice of righteousness, heralding some plan of salvation. A new element had come into this world — the element of sin. If man had WITHIX THP. SHEEN. 31 not sinned, the revelation of God in nature would have been complete for him. He who looks for God in nature will find in nature all the attributes of God as displayed for man Ijefore human sin entered this w orld. Human sin was not in the world at the creation, only divine love for oncoming man, so the works of early creation — the rocks, fields, and forests — speak to us of all the divine attributes, excepting redemption from sin. After ph}'sical creation sin entered the moral realm of this planet. Then its divine antidote of necessity appeared in the spiritual life of Jesus the Christ. Thus we have A DUAL MESS.\GE FROM GOD. First : God in nature as he spoke to all man's needs before sin came into the human heart. Added to this we now have, Second : God in Jesus Christ as he speaks to all the spiritual needs of sinful man. Nature and Jesus the Christ are an old and a new testament, containing the complete romance of divine love in creation and in redemption. The story of Christ had to be written that the world might know the matchless redemptive love of God, and so we venerate and love God's Holy Tjook, not as a fetich, but as a loving child folds to the heart the letter penned b)' the dying mother before passing into glory. Yea, more, for we catch from its ]5ages the onlv message of eternal hope for our own hearts, the sweet words of redemption from sin, and salva- 32 WITH IK THE SHEEK. tion to the immortal life. \\'e exalt that Book as God's second best gift to man, for it tells a sweeter story than the winds speak or the rocks whisper. It is the story of the Messiah — that ^lessiah, God's gift of Himself for a lost world. i\Iost \\ondrousIy He grew. Too -jnique and holy was that life for our poor human thought to compass or fathom. Methinks that as that infant heart enlarged beyond its first feeble responses to motherly afl:"ection, there steadily flowed into it a ceaseless stream of divine love. As capacity to will developed, there kept apace the in- filling of the divine will. As thoughts multiplied, lo ! there gradually showed forth in Him the mind of God. Thus from infantile and dependent existence rest- ing on the bosom of the blessed \'irgin ^Mother, with all His physical limitations for receiving, but perfect in all his receptions, there steadily expanded a physi- cal capacity for a larger portion of divine life. In never-failing proportions that divine life occupied to the full that expanding tenement of purest clav, until there stood forth before the w orld the Human and Di- vine Messiah in all his physical maturitv. Thus " He grew in favor with God and man," alwavs in perfect equipoise in His dual nature, but growing to the full stature of a complete phvsical life. By this incarnation of divine life there was neither more of God on earth nor less of God in heaven, but " God manifest in the flesh." The electric bulb is Init the form which reveals the light from the electric current pervading the wire. It is the power of electricity made manifest in the bulb : IN GETHSEMANE. irJTHIN THE SHEEN. 33 but when by age and use tbe bulb falls away the great current moves on in its silent course. The lamp was but the medium for the revelation of the electric light, as the human form of Jesus the Christ showed forth the true light of the world. In this manner there came to the world a Redeemer — Christ our King. " Through His stripes we are healed." \'ICAR70U.S SUFFERFNG ! ■ a mystery which seems at first insolvable to mortal mind. Innocent love bruised and bleeding at the feet of sin that justice may be satisfied. A selfish soul, calloused to all the mystic influences of sadness and suffering about it, moves in cold and unfeeling courses anndst tlie despairing and struggling victims in life's moral wreckage. When the divine element of love and tenderness enters such a life, then that blessed but now sad angel — sympathy — causes the heart to yearn for others, the tear to start, and turns the customary hours of sleep into night vigils 1)y the cot of human woe. He who possesses most of holy love in this world suffers most vicariously. It may not be in a Gethsemane, on tb.e side of Dlivet, or upon the cruel cross of Calvary, but, oh, how the spear thrust reaches the heart of innocent love ! The tenderest hearts are susceptible to the keenest mental agonies. As we move upward in the scale of holy love, ascending step by step, from friend to brother, sister, father, mother, God, the sacrificial suffering of the soul by sorrow for the sins of others is graduated and intensified by the angle of ascent. 34 U'lTHiy THE SHEEN. Love from its \er\ nature becomes a mediator. He \vb,o in childisli ua}'s witli lisping, stammering" peni- tence poured into his mother's ear the story of rebel- hon against fatherl\- authority, should recall how that penitence and that chosen mediator, in a m_\'Sterious \va_\', kno«n onh- to love, sweetened, intensified, and Ulumincd the atmosphere of that hour of reconcilia- tion. But can the suffering of the innocent atone for the guilty? Can another one's heart l.ilood, and that the blood of the innocent, atone for sin? There is here A ilV.STERY OF DIVINE ALCHEMY. A little fellow deliberately threw a stone and smashed the window glass. The father upon his re- ttirn home found the little culprit holding to his slightly older brother, who said, " Papa, \\'illie did it, but I had some pennies in my bank and I went over with Willie and I paid the lady for it. Please, papa, don't punish Willie." As the two little fellows stood, one shielding Ijy love, the other seeking the protec- tion of love, the innocent having suft'ered with and for the guilty — what think }c ? A\'as it simplv that after the act of sin the act of paying money made amends for the willful deed, or ^\■as it that a far higher result was obtained ? A\"as not the love of each for the other intensified by that reciprocity of love, and ^\as not that father greater, grander, nobler, and more faithful to the law of justice in forgiving rather than punishing? To our human thought, the penitence of the one and the vicarious sacrifice of the other made forgiveness WITHIN THE SHEEN. 35 a moral necessity. And so the innocent suffers for the guihy. Yicaiious sufifering in a world of sin by its reflex influences on the other souls about it, makes the world a brighter, better, and holier place. Widen this same circle now and take in the whole moral realm. We will find within it sin, atonement in Jesus Christ, and God. Read again the story of the little boys and then see how that from sin, atone- ment in Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness of God we experience " the joy of the redeemed." ^\'e are now up in the realm of the highest thought. Is there darkness about us? Is there any mist of doubt or uncertainty obscuring our vision ? Then let us watch with sincere heart-yearning for that sunrise ! It's coming! ^May we stand together on the highest point of observation raised above the great ocean of time? That mountain top is an exalted life spanned by just thirty-three years and tracked by the earthly footprints of our Lord. Back of us is the rugged range of Old Testament history, while liefore us the foothills of the New Dispensation stretch away into the dim distance to a sea of universal love, which sweeps about the walls of THAT CELESTIAL W^HITE CITY whose domes and minarets are just beyond. The sun of prophecv has long since set. It went down first be- tween the twin peaks of lofty Isaiah and rugged Jere- miah. The weird Ezekiel next becomes shrouded, un- til at last the sun of prophecy is veiled behind the minor prophets, disappearing in the sea of silence. For four 36 HITHIX THE SHEEX. hundred years thereafter no ray of prophetic Hght found its way through the hlack and lowering clouds. \\'ith four long centuries of undisturbed night behind us, \\ e cast an expectant glance to the eastern horizon. A setting sun throws its rays backward ; a rising sun casts its rays forward. The last rays of prophecy A\ere shed here on this mountain where we stand, while the first dawn of sunrise will be witnessed here. In our thinking we are at the corona of glory — our vision s\^■eeps a world. Glorious opportunit}' ! Precious hour this, fated with possibilities of wonderful out- look ! Is it strange to thee that the divine and human should here meet and coalesce in a God-child born of a woman ? By the touch of Almightv God at the world's dawn of human life, inanimate nature was en- ergized, vivified, and glorified, while from planetary dust there arose by the divine inbreathing of life, a race of poets, philosophers, and philanthropists — soul- ful beings endowed with God-like qualities of father- hood, motherhood, the love of children, and all the sweet virtues of spiritual life. IMarvel of marvels that a little handful of clav, God- touched, should have become divinely formed and en- dowed with an immortal soul — yea, should have be- come a child of God ! Is it more of a miracle, then, that He who caused in- animate nature to conceive and bring forth immortal man, should unite with and enter into the life of that sweet and I'Aire virgin of Bethlehem, revealing therebv the fatherhood of God and sanctifying the mother- hood of earth ? WITH I \ run SHERX. 37 It is indeed most natural that the supreme thinq- in the celestial world, the loving heart of a Heavenly Father, should be displayed to our sordid human race through the most supernal of all earth's possessions — motherhood — b}- immaculate conception. Eden is a greater m}-stery than Bethlehem. ^^dlile we are waiting here for the advancing light to burst in over Bethlehem's hills, let us, between the hours of the immaculate conception and the angel songs of eastern morn, look up into the calm vault of heaven. The starry world hangs pendent over our heads. \^'orld upon world and constellation upon constella- tion swing in golden-lielted highwavs, swaved by in- visible power. No material arm is in sight, vet in- finite arm power sweeps the sky. It's there. Some- how — yet there. Our soul's ear catches a voice in- audible and our heart stands almost still as a message comes in. The doors are locked and the windows bolted, anfl )et a messenger enters in and, standing be- fore conscience, speaks, speaks, and conscience answers to it, yet no vibrations disturb the air and no waves of sound break the sacred silence of the soul's temple. While we are waiting keep thine eyes riveted upon the heavens above thee. The blanket of night is spread over the world at thy feet, and thou art throwing thy soul into the expanse above thee, where the invisible forces are evidencing the mightiest intelligence of the universe, as its worlds are swinging pendulums from golden suns held in place by invisible power. From whence? Invisible power and invisible persons are what we are dealing with this day. 38 WITHIN THE SHEEN. ALL POWER IS INVISIBLE. The flashing hght in the wake of the flying meteor which )-ou saw was not the power that launched it forth. The mallet struck the ball — you saw it. The mallet stopped, but the ball sped on. Secret, invisible power lurked within — unseen and invisible — but there. But above thee, where thou art looking with me now, no visible physical contact transmits, but power sweeps the abysses and climbs the heights unspoken and unseen, except as to thy soul. There it both speaks and is seen in the white-walled inclosure of thine inner consciousness, where no materialism finds its way and where thou and the Infinite meet. During the Revolutionary War a spy passed through the British lines, bearing in his pocket a message to Washington. He was arrested, and the letter ex- amined ; but there being nothing seen in it but a com- monplace letter to a friend, he was released and sped on. When Washington received from his hand the letter he held it up to the light, and there, traced with milk, was a communication of vital importance to the American armies. Will you hold up to the light " God's book of nature " and its sequel, " God's book of inspired revelation," and catch a message for vour own heart as you discover the invisible power and the in- visible persons lurking therein ? Until recently I thought there were but three per- sons crucified together that awful night on Calvary : Christ in the center, and a thief on the right and a thief on the left. By putting the Gospel accounts to- UITHIN THE SHEEN. 39 gether, with a study of Paul's epistle, I find that we cannot harmonize the accounts of the Crucifixion, un- less we admit that there were four crucified together. Christ's cross bore not only himself, but another. I follow the narrative, and find that Joseph of Ari- niathsa's tomb contained Christ and a companion from His cross, while on the golden morning of the Resur- rection, when the flashing angelic swords cleft the seal and cut the bands, Christ and (7 companion came forth together to that Resurrection, Noting the phraseol- ogy, I sweep back in eager thought to the scene of Christ's baptism, and there too the Word admits of an- other being baptized with Him. Let us, with the most solemn thought toward God, press the incjuiry. Who was that other one ? BELIEVER, THOU ART THE ONE ! " With Christ in baptism " (Col. ii. 12) ; " Crucified with Christ " ( Gal. ii. 20. ) ; " Dead with Christ " (Col. ii. 20) ; " Risen with Him " (Col. ii. 12) : " Compan- ions with Him forevermore " (Alatt. xxviii. 20). Believer, how do you honor or dishonor that com- panionship? Oh, servant of God, dost thou only dream of this, or hast thou gotten the thought of di- vine companionship woven into the very warp and woof of thv nature, so that thou art weaving the de- sign of thy life like unto the life of Jesus the Christ of God? While we have been waiting and talking together the light has burst over Judah's hills. " There's a mother's deep jarayer, And a baby's low cry! 40 ]VITHIN THE SHEEN. And the Star rains its fire while the beautiful sing, For the Manger of Bethlehem cradles a King." The angelic chorus has startled the morning still- ness ; the wise men have bowed at the manger's side, and the temple has received the youth. His fame has gone out through all the land. Sickness has fled be- fore Him, while death itself has for the first time felt the irresistible power of a revealed Christ who came to lift the weight of human sorrows. Enthusiastic crowds meanwhile pressed Him on all sides, until, transformed into a raging mob, they showed Him to tis crucified, dead, buried. Then came the dashing charge of the angels to the sepulcher, the very flash of whose glances paral}zed the Roman guards. Then followed the reassertion of life. A\'e now in this panorama behold the glory-crowned IMount of Ascension, and " He is received out of their sight." A forsaken world visited and a visited world for- saken ! Is that your creed? If so, stand with us as the advancing day permits us to discern the succeeding acts of the Apostles, in which the Invisible is brought to our sight with stich strange power and overwhelm- ing influence. The revelation opens up \\itli the statement that what has passed in such rapidity before our vision between Bethlehem and the Ascension was but the beginning of Christ's work. From Bethlehem to the Ascension marked but the beginning of Christ's marvelous re- demptive work. Listen to the recoril ( Acts i. i ) : Luke savs " The former treatise have I written unto you, O Theophilus, WITHIN THE SHEEN. 41 of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach." The gospels are but the history of the inauguration of Christ's work and words, " Began both to do and to teach." Either He has abandoned His work, or He is yet doing it. " Lo, I am w ith you all the days " was the statement. How can that harmonize with His actual absence? Ah! Note ye: "a cloud received Him out of their sight." He became invisible! As He appeared " in the upper room " and was invisilile between the door and the middle of the room, so He vanished from their sight, but remained our ever-pres- ent Lord. Xo more physical, earthly presence to di- vide or limit tlie soul thought. Marv, the sister of the entombed Lazarus, said, " Lord, if thou hadst l:)een here, our brother had not died." A\'as not our Lord there? Being physically out in the desert. He was not thought of as being in Bethany. He was hedged in to the thought of His most loving followers the WOMEN OF EETII.VNY, because of His physical environment. Freed from those earthly conceptions and His embodiment, He is lifted up in our thought to the eternal throne of God and becomes to us our always-present Lord and Saviour. It was a strange message that Christ delivered to His disciples just before He left, and which, while one of the most sublime and important of all His utterances, is one of the least comprehended by the Church. He stated the necessitv of His becoming invisible that He might give unto His followers the ministration of the Hoh' Spirit. The doctrine laid down is that compan- 42 U'lTHIX THE SHEEM. ionship with Christ is not enough. Note carefully the petitions of His disciples and their reliance all centered in the visilile Christ. Xo prayer is recorded hefort the Ascension in which the disciples prayed to the Father or to the Holy Spirit. Yet Christ prayed con- tinually. Therefore it became a necessity that He should go into the invisible realm so that the Holy Spirit should reveal unto them the Fatherhood of God, the C)mnipresent Christ, and the universal ministra- tions of the Holy Ghost. Bcthlchcii was a necessity to reach the world.' Calvary was a necessity to redeem the world. Pente- cost was a necessity to sanctify the world. When our Lord had departed, there were two things that His disciples knew that they must do : First : ^lodel their lives after His. Second : \\'itness for Him. But our Blessed blaster had practically said : " I am going away, and will leave you unfitted to witness for me. You know all about my miraculous coming. You know all about ni}- ministr\'. You were with me in Gethsemane and at Calvary. You stood bv at the Resurrection. You companioned with me during many days of happy reunion after death, and thou art to see me caught up into the invisible realm bevond thee, while heavenly heralds are to bid thee speed on. I know your hearts are eager to tell the story, while Calvary stands as a monument to the intensitv of mv desire to win a lost world. But," He said, " wait, wait, wait ! " Those disciples had kiioi^'ledge, esperieiiee. and ^'/7/- iiig hearts. " Not enough," says our Lord, " to carry in THIN THE SHEEN. 43 the priceless message to a lost w orld." Not enough ! There is a force, a power, a personality that must come into thy life before thou art prepared. Thus does Christ magnify the Holy Spirit, invisible to our sight, but present at our side, waiting to take possession of our hearts. While wise men bow at Bethlehem let wise men also bow at Pentecost. While the frankincense and mvrrh sweeten the air in that City of David, the birthplace of the Messiah, let the ofTerings of love and adoration be likewise poured out at I\'ntecost, the birthplace of the Holy Ghost. Uh, thou blessed Comforter, be Thou our Guide forevermore ! Oh, brethren, do you know Christ? So did the un- prepared disciples. Have you experience in walking in His footsteps? So had the unprepared disciples. Have you a willing heart for testimony ? So had the unprepared disciples. Do you say, " What lack I yet?" Do }'ou not lack what the Church of Christ so greatly neerls to-day — a special baptism of the Holy Spirit? Are you being guided in all your thoughts and speech by the Holy Spirit, or are you like the pro- fessed disciples just before Pentecost (casting lots for a successor to Judas), having your course steered by chance or uncertain events ? I call }our close and prayerful attention to the Apostles as we watch them from our vantage-point of observation. The com- mand of our Lord to His disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit should be given to them was met by their gathering together and spending ten days in prayer for such a baptism and a personal revelation of a personal comforter. Think of it for a moment. That com- 44 U7THIX THE SHEEX. niand meant. Do not take a step : do not speak a word ; do not undertake in any way to make a move to carry into effect the great commission unless under the per- sonal influence of the Holy Spirit. Now let us watch the eft'ect, as with MIGHTY, MAJESTIC STEP the Holy Spirit, receiving the intense petitions of the disciples, crowns Pentecost with His sublime pres- ence. Oh, what tremendous obligations crowd in upon us to God the Father, who from the wealth of His infinite love sent His Son into the world. Oh, what tremendous obligations crowd in upon us to God the Sou. \\'ho gave Himself a sacrifice for a lost world! Oh, what tremendous obligations crowd in upon us to God the Holy Sf^irit — He who brooded over the world at tlie Creation: He who gave the torch of light to the r)1(l Testament prophets, enabling them to foreshadow the ^fessiah to come ! It was the Holy Spirit who brought the man Christ into being, descended upon Him in the form of a dove at Ijaptism, and was with Him in the desert. It was of the Holy Spirit that our blessed Lord loved to talk in His last conversations \\ith His disciples before the Crucifixion. It was the Hoh' Spirit of whom He made that glorious prophecv that portends so much to you and me — that He should descend upon His disciples in all time and fill th.em with Himself. Then follows that resplendent galaxv of flashing promises that reveals to us the blessed mis- sion of the Hob.- Spirit who was to descend as " that other Comlijrter." He shall lead the diseiples into all tnitlt. nVTH/.Y THE SHEEN. 45 Do you w ant to be guided and led into a full knowl- edge of the divine love?' Do yon want to know \-our Saviour as you have never known Him before? Do you want His Word to blaze forth with new light and ring with sweeter words of comfort and jov? Then pray for the Holy Spirit, and cease not that prayer until the answer comes. He shall he the guide and companion of the Chnreh. Dost thou want that Holy Spirit to companion with thy soul ? to lead thee into labors of love, lighten thy days with His sweet converse, and keep thee close to the Father-heart of God ? Then prav for the Holv Spirit, and cease not that prayer until the answer comes. He shall make us like unto Christ. Do you want the same mind in 3-ou that was in Christ Jesus our Lord? Do you want fitness for serv- ice ? Do you want to have power from on high ? Then pray for the Holy Spirit, and cease not that prayer until the answer comes. Then to that Holv Spirit, to whom we owe our salvation, our knowledge of Christ, our promptings to a better life, and from whom we receive the blessed guidance and help of His daily companionship, be glory and honor for ever and ever ! Shall we open up our hearts now — even now — to the reception of the Holy Spirit? " Be ye filled with the Holv Ghost." C)h, that we workers could be Ijrougiit by the Blessed Spirit close to the heart of the Man of Sorrows ! Then we would easily find our w ay to the heart of sorrow ing humanity. The secret of the early Church was that it was 46 U'lTHIX THE SHEEX. First : Full of Faith. Second : Full of the Holy Ghost. How did the Holy Spirit descend upon the early disciples ? First : As a sound of rushing wind ( but there was no wind ) . Manifest power ! Second : Cloven, fiery tongues. Witness power — power to witness. " Ye are my witnesses." But note the statement, '■ After the Holy Ghost is come upon vou, \e shall be witnesses unto me." After — after — " after the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Dare you teach a Sunday- school class without being filled with the Holy Ghost? Dare }'0u live? Dare you live without the intense as- surance that He is abiding in thy soul? How sweet the atmosphere of thy secret life will be with such a guest ! The Holy Spirit is always spoken of in God's Book in terms of gentleness, love, and tenderness, ^^'e read of the wrath of God the Father, the wrath of God the Son, the judgment and the tribunals of the Father and the Son ; but the Holy Spirit is alw ays spoken of as tenderness and love. Oh, that He might enter into full possession of our souls, to guide our ambition, illuminate our thought, and, taking complete possession of our minds, make our lives conform to His whole nature ! Now lift thy thought to the very throne of God I Jesus was a man. ^^'ithin Him was God, and He became the Christ of a ^^■orkl. You are a man. The promise is that within vou Gofl the Holy Ghost ma\- dwell, and then thou wilt become a Christ in thine influence. " As thou hast WITHIN mil SHEEN. 47 sent nie into the world, even so, even so, send I them into the world." Marvelous possil^ilities, stupendous privileges. Shall w e not seek aliove all other things to be tilled with the Holy Spirit, and so eompanion with Him for the Christ's sake? Amen. " 1 would not have you ignorant, brethren, of them who are asleep." Pl^-'S^PT^n THE FIRST EASTER MORN. OUR VANISHED LOVED ONES. " I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen; and have the keys of death and of the realm of the departed spirits." — A't-?'. i. i8. OxcE in boyhood daj's, when fever laid its hand upon me, I tossed with bHnded eyes and delirious brain, fearing every imaginable evil, when out of the blackness about me I heard a voice that dispelled all the discordant cries which were rending my disordered brain. I felt a throbbing which I knew meant that I, a little boy, was held and kept on mother's bosom and was being spoken to by mother's love. An ineffable light illitmined my sotil, and I was at rest. Later on I followed her down to \\ here two worlds met, and kneeling at that bedside I saw the marvelous radiance from a redeemed spirit already plumed for its heavenly flight. Then I saw her pass beyond the range of my natural vision, but she did not hurry. She for some little time rested there in the Valley of Shadows and sweetly talked with me. She told me that she knew the shadows were there, but they were only there to us who remained behind. " All is light to me," she added, " all is light ; Jesus is here." I was behind her, as it were. The golden light of the Celes- tial One she saw beyond her, left for me the shadow of my earthly loss. Her vision was clear. Two worlds for her were billowed in light. As I brushed away the blinding tears, behold, I saw no more, for 51 52 OUR VANISHED LOVED OSES. SHE HAD r.ECO.ME INVISIBLE. Somehow my mind has not been satisfied with the statement that \\ e are separated. Only one cliange has come over me — I cannot see her with these now faihng natural eyes ; that is all. I never did see her, anyway. I daily saw her face, which carried an out- ward expression of a wonderful spiritual life within, but I never saw that life. I had heard her expressions of love for her boy, and had felt its manifestations, but I never saw that divine flame. So when her voice failed and her face took on its last beatific expressions, love lived on with me, and I know that love lived on with her ; the reflecting medium had simply given out, or had it been changed for another? Were those loves separated ? Would God separate them ? I have been ever since watching the opening into that mystic realm called death. Other of my dear ones have meanwhile vanished therein, and there has gradually come to me a new and strange impression, a deep calm and a blessed companioning, until the long- ing of my soul is now not to go, but only to see, for seeing is going and going is seeing — one is but a synonym of the other. The term " departed spirit " is a misnomer, if I read aright the W^ord of God. In wandering along the portals constantly swinging open into that realm, I came to an old passagewav. It \vas where Jacob went through, and the statement is made on indisputal)le authority that he was " gathered to his people." A strange expression prevalent among no- madic tribes, the memory of whose sepulchered dead OCR r AX/SHED LOVED ONES. S3 haloed their resting-places along the line of wandering, as in solitary graves the\' kept death's vigils. How blessed to our thought that this wondrous Book of God opens so early with the statement that in passing over we go to our loved ones ! Yea, even be- fore Jacob's invisibility God had hung out a light over the entry into the eternal world by telling Abraham in a wondrous revelation that when he should be called hence he would go to his fathers who had gone before. And so there comes that assurance of reunion with our loved ones, as old as the Word of God itself. This answers to the heart-yearning so strong in all of God's children. It responds to our desire for the unity of loves in the realms of light. Somehow with anxious forebodings we ponder the thought, " Will our loved ones who have entered into the larger life be to us, when \\'e join them, what they were to us when we companioned together with them in this lesser life?" What means that strange utterance of the inspired writer, " In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed " ? Will earthly ties vanish? Does the statement that there " They neither marry nor are given in marriage " sound the death knell to that bond, sanctified by love's joys and sorrows? Can it be that the sweetest ties born of life's companionships are " changed " or de- stroyed as we pass through that strange ordeal so mis- takenly called death ? Let us bear in mind that the better life is a spiritual existence. The physical, sensual, and materialistic na- tures that we now have will there be transformed into glorified bodies which will thrill only with the highest 54 OL'R J\4XISHED LOTED OXES. and holiest spiritual emotions. Sensual joys will be forever succeeded by spiritual delights. We all appreciate the fact that there are blood re- lationships here, where no " kinship of spirit " exists. On the contrary, we ofttimes witness in this world evi- dences of a spiritual brotherhood where there beats but the physical pulsations of a common humanity. When our Divine Master said, " He that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, my sister, and my brother," He let us some- what into the secret of the relationships which shall exist when we shall be " at home with the Lord." Let us gather up in thought all that there is in the heart of motiierhood, in sisterly love and brotherly af- fection, and blending it together as we conceive it ex- ists in our Heavenly Father's home, we will have but a faint conception of the love ties, or spiritual relation- ships, between the redeemed spirit and our blessed Lord. If, then, all who enter into that larger life are to experience such a marvelous enrichment of the soul's affections, will not the element of character which we so adore in our loved ones here be infinitely beautified, to the intensifying of our affections toward them there? ^^'ill not our own infilling from the Divine Xature make its irresistible appeal to the hearts of those who with a new heavenly vision will see our likeness to Jesus Christ? \Mien our loved ones shall sit with us at the feet of Jesus in the celestial realm, with all human frailties gone and all hearts filled to overflowing with the holi- est emotions, will not love flow at high tide? OVR ]\4NISHED LOVED ONES. 55 But are they far hence? The babe lifted by angeHc beings from its mother's bosom, but also from a world's terrible moral hazards — IS IT FAR OFF? The loved wife on whom someone leaned in that sweetest of life's joys — wifely love — is she far hence? It is not a day's journey! This is certain, for He who lifted the penitent one from the cruel cross to celestial joys said to him, " This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," and so within the compass of but a few- hours our thought should look with that confident hope that we shall find within it our spiritual ones, and in the finding shall have new joys by companioning with them in the Divine Presence. One jo3'ful thought entering into this inquiry is that time and distance are unknown and non-existent in the other life. A thousand years to them are " but as yesterday." Not as to-day with its wearisome cares, but as yesterday with its vague recollections, or as a single " watch in the night." The whole period of human existence on this planet is less than the dim memories of an earthly day's span to the glorified spirits amidst the beatific joys of eternity. " No more time ! " Wherever our loved ones are, the as- surance comes to us that in point of time they cannot be far away, for time is eliminated from the heavenly life. For our hungry hearts, wearied with the lonely vigils here, this truth, while comforting, does not en- tirely fill the void that seems to exist between us and our invisible ones. It might not take them long to come to us, but do they come and are they very near? S6 OUR rAXISHED LOIED OSES. Oh, for an answer whereby our turbulent thoughts might safely rest in conscious companionship with them here, as we shall some day in more clearness of vision companion with them there ! One thing is sure : the angels are constantly minis- tering to all His loved ones in this world of ours. " Are the}- not all ministering spirits sent forth to min- ister unto them who are heirs of salvation?" All down through the ages, kings, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, with the blessed Christ, have borne testimony to these sweet messengers of comfort. There can be no mistake but that there is a clear revelation contained in the Word of God that most of heaven is here with us. God's universality is left nowhere in doubt. Our blessed Lord said, " Lo, I am with you always." and the Holy Spirit's constant abiding among us and in us is clearh' affirmed with such supreme delight to the heart of every true child of God. How the soul should fill with joy over the divine goodness in revealing the fact that all the angels are sent forth to minister to Christ's followers in this earthly conflict ! There can be no question, then, that all the celestial powers, from the ^lost High God to the humblest angel of light, ARE ACTIVELY EXE.ISTED in a world's redemption, and are with us in the con- flict. \Miy should we, then, for a single moment sup- pose that our own loved ones are the onlv exiles from this most sweet and joyous service to Him who gave Himself for us? \Mth our present conceptions of God such would not seem possible. Let us, how ever, move OUR l\4NISHED LOi'ED ONES. 57 along the line of the Christ revelation, and new gleams of light will flash in upon us with heavenly radiance. Jesus the Christ taught His disciples by special reve- lations when He desired them to know more fully some deep truth. When in the darkness of the prison's gloom John the Baptist felt the black shadow of doubt in his soul, he sent to Jesus and asked Him if He was really the One that was to come, or must he look for another. Jesus replied by simply letting John's disciples look into His miraculous work. \\'hen the disciples needed to be taught of His great love for the sinner, He let them zvitncss the climax to the scene at Samaria's well. As the lesson of humility was needed, they beheld, and lo ! He washed their feet. So as He desired to let them and us further into the secret of the eternal world, He took Peter, James, and John with Him into the mountain for a soul z'ision. It was no new thing for Him to go into the moun- tain apart. All day He walked and talked with those of this world, and then as " every man went unto his own house Jesus went into the Mount of Olives " or elsewhere and companioned with the Invisible. The record is very plain that spiritual communings were His sometimes for a whole night. So He took the three disciples up into the mountain with Him, and they fell asleep. When they awoke He permitted them to sec who were with Him, and there in calm, sweet, heavenly converse sat Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. They were talking about earthly events that were to occur in the life work of our Lord. Just as angels had been 58 OUR VASISHED LOVED OXES. found to be with Him elsewhere, so here in the divine counsels, and seen by special permission, were these earthly redeemed ones. Conversant they seemed to be with the affairs of the earthly kingdom. Strange, was it not, that the disciples being permitted to use their spiritual vision knew who Christ's two companions were ? Simply by a change in their power of sight they also beheld a new Christ, for He was transfigured before them. Ah, could we but see with that peculiar sight from which our eyes are now holden. whom might we not see ? The disciples SIMPLY HAD .\ FOREGLEAM of that hour when they should know even as they were then known. These heavenly ones were present with the disciples while they stupidly slept, and were appar- ent only to them when God for a moment opened their vision a little wider. It should be remembered that there were three witnesses who beheld this glorious scene. One fact is clear : \\'herever Jesus is, there are our saved, vanished, and loved ones. When we depart we shall be with Christ, which is far better (Phil. i. 23), so that when we are absent from the body we are pres- ent with the Lord (2 Cor. v. 8). Another fact is clear : If we are His disciples, then wherever we are, there Jesus is. Our blessed Lord on the Blount companioned on His earthly side with Peter, James, and John, and on His heavenly side was companioning with Closes and Eli- jah ; so that side by side in the holy companv of our Lord these of heaven and earth sat together — to the OUR J'ANISHED LOI'ED ONES. 59 disciples for a time unconsciously, but they were there together, nevertheless. \Mth this wonderful picture before us, « e have an illustration given to us by our loving Master that the redeemed in heaven and the redeemed on earth coiii- paiiioii together in that most blessed of all associations — Unity III Christ. If that unity is perfect, no space can divide and no time can separate us from each other. Oh, how we should seek to keep in that most holy bond! Separation from our loved, invisible ones can only occur when they or we are exiled from Christ. If so near, may we not speak to these dear ones, and why can we not receive just one message from them? Why should we desire to commune one with the other? Perfect faith in the word of God should satisfy this craving of our souls. Fellow-disciples, is it possible that we so doubt our Lord's statement that in order to believe Him we must, Thomas-like, see with the mortal eye and hear with the fleshly ear ? Lo ! He speaketh to the heart of man, and onlv to the eve of faith does the celestial vista now open to the soul of man ere he is permitted to wing his flight through realms of eternal joy. Somehow I feel that MESSAGES ARE PASSING constantly from one to the other, but there is failure here to understand the heavenly voices, coming as they do in the language of heaven. Our limited knowledge of the spiritual world narrows the possibilities down, and vet some few things we do know. In this world 6o OUR VANISHED LOVED ONES. of ours words are but the evidences of mental action. It is the thought we are after. So as we ponder the problem, it seems very clear that God through His in- finite love gives us the key to the soul desires for us of our invisible loved ones and transmits to us the reve- lation of their heart-throbs in our behalf. Son, is thy mother with Christ in the better realm? You know then, under the divine light of God's Word, what her message to your soul is. Could it be other than Christ's invitation to you? Husband, has the wife of thy love passed into that realm so near, so beautiful, and so holy? Listen to the voice speaking in thy sou!. Does it not interpret her message. Yes ? Oh, mother, wife, daughter, sister, thy loved one is with Jesus, and Christ is either in your heart or at the door of your heart, and your loved one is there \\ ith Him. Stop and listen ! Away back in the secret cham- ber of your soul His voice speaks. Listen ! Would your loved one send any other message than that ? In the awful extremity of a world's need, all heaven can have but one message for each of us, while the world can have but one answer which it could feel was fitted to it. Heaven's united message is. Follow Jesus. The an- swering message should be the gift of self to God. Then that bond of blessed companionship is completed, and we in our very deepest natures will enjoy that most holy relation, simply waiting for that bright and golden moment when the veil shall be riven, the vision expanded, the weary body divested, and we move, not out to, but into that realm where we shall be gathered OUR I 'AN I SHED LOfRD ONES. 6i to our people. Happy moment — oh, longed-for hour! Feeling the s\\ eetness of their lilessed presence with us now, but then seeing the celestial light of their spirits divine. Now knowing something, but so weakly, of the divine companionship, but then knowing as we are known. A VISION BY THE SEA. I PITCHED my tent one summer night on a point of land extending far out into the sea. As darkness set- tled down upon me the storm-clouds that had been gathering all that day came rolling in upon the land. The wild winds swept sea, hill, and vale, while great angry waves dashed themselves in fury on the shore. IT WAS AN APPALLING STORM ! As I peered out of my tent into the blackness of the night I saw a great lighthouse lifting its golden bea- con far into the clouds. All night long the storm raged. All night long that flaming signal was exalted far into the clouds ! But soon the morning dawned. That wild, tumult- uous sea had now become an imperial highway of roval purple, flecked by golden flashlights sparkling in the pathway of the sun. Flocks fed in the vallevs and along peaceful streams, while the flowers of the fields lifted their heads, still glistening with the tear-drops of the night, that they might be kissed bv the lips of the rising sun. A great fleet of vessels was moored under the shelter of yonder reef, having found its wav into port bv fol- lowing the light through the stream. Their anchors were cast, their sails were furled, the waves had ceased from troubling and the sailors were at rest. 62 A VISION BY THE SEA. 63 No need of the lighthouse now, for the sun had be- come the hght thereof, and the waves had ceased their troubhng and the sailors were at rest ! Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land! Oh, Para- dise, sweet Paradise ! Oh, Golden City, sweet Golden City ! i\lav we hold aloft the glorious light of the Gos- pel of Jesus Christ above the raging seas of time ; that the storm-tossed mariners may find their way by its rays into the port of peace, where " the Lamb is the light thereof " and " the wicked shall cease from troubling and the weary shall be at rest ! " Oh, Golden Day ! Speed thou thy glorious com-