us would have been tinted with tender azure, hiding their awfulness; I do not believe that storms would break away into rainbows, and that the clouds of sunset would display the whole gamut of sensuous splendor; I do not believe that the ocean would wear such joy for the eye over its awful abysses; I do not believe that the mountains would crown the complete, the general loveliness of the globe.

The eloquent preacher then continues to draw other lessons from the Lake, but, unfortunately, our space is too limited to allow quotation in full.  The following, however, are short excerpts which suggest the richness of the fuller expression: 

The color of the Lake is a word from this natural Gospel.  It covers the chasms and wounds of the earth with splendor.  It is what the name of the lovely New Hampshire lake, Winnepesaukee indicates, “The Smile of the Great Spirit.”

And this color is connected with purity.  The green ring of the Lake is so brilliant, the blue enclosed by it is so deep and tender, because there is no foulness in the water.  The edge of the waves along all the beach is clean.  The granite sand, too, often dotted with smooth-washed jaspers and garnets and opaline quartz, is especially bright and spotless.  In fact, the Lake seems to be conscious, and to have an instinct against contamination.  Several streams pour their burden from the mountains into it; but the impurities which they bring down seem to be thrown back from the lip of the larger bowl, and form bars of sediment just before they can reach its sacred hem.  Dip from its white-edged ripples, or from its calm heart, or from the foam that breaks over its blue when the wind rouses it to frolic, and you dip what is fit for a baptismal font,—­you dip purity itself.

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The purity of nature is the expression of joy, and it is a revelation to us that the Creator’s holiness is not repellent and severe.  God tries to win you by his Spirit, which clothes the world with beauty, to trust him, to give up your evil that you may find deeper communion with him, and to recognize the charm of goodness which alone is harmony with the cheer and the purity of the outward world.

I must speak of another lesson, connected with religion, that was suggested to me on the borders of Lake Tahoe.  It is bordered by groves of noble pines.  Two of the days that I was permitted to enjoy there were Sundays.  On one of them I passed several hours of the afternoon in listening, alone, to the murmur of the pines, while the waves were gently beating the shore with their restlessness.  If the beauty and purity of the Lake were in harmony with the deepest religion of the Bible, certainly the voice of the pines was also in chord with it.

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