But the first word which fell from the lips of the speaker withdrew her attention from every other object, for his voice possessed a quality with which she was entirely unfamiliar.  It would have charmed and fascinated the hearer, even if it had uttered incoherent words.  For Pepeeta, it had another and a more mysterious value.  It was the voice of her destiny, and rang in her soul like a bell.  The speech of the young Quaker was a simple and unadorned message of the love of God to men, and of their power to respond to the Divine call.  The thoughts to which he gave expression were not original, but simply distillations from the words of Madam Guyon, Fenelon, Thomas a Kempis and St. John; and yet they were not mere repetitions, for they were permeated by the freshness and the beauty of his own pure feelings.

“We are all,” said he, “the children of a loving Father whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, who yet dwells in every contrite human heart as the light of the great sun reproduces itself in every drop of dew.  To have God dwell thus in the soul is to enjoy perfect peace.  This life is a life of bitterness to those who struggle against God, a world of sorrow to those who doubt Him, and of darkness to those who refuse His sweet illumination.  But the sorrow and the struggle end, and the darkness becomes the dawn to every one who loves and trusts the heavenly Father, for He bestows upon all a Divine gift.  This gift is the ’inner light,’ the light which shines within the soul itself and sheds its rays upon the dark pathway of existence.  This God of love is not far from every one of us and we may all know Him.  He is to be loved, not hated; trusted, not feared!  Why should men tremble at the consciousness of His presence?  Does the little sparrow in its nest feel any fear when it hears the flutter of its parent’s wings?  Does the child shudder at its mother’s approaching footsteps?” As he uttered these words, he paused and awaited an answer.

Each sentence had fallen into the sensitive soul of the Fortune Teller like a pebble into a deep well.  She was gazing at him in astonishment.  Her lips were parted, her eyes were suffused and she was leaning forward breathlessly.

“If we would live bravely, hopefully, tranquilly,” he continued, “we must be conscious of the presence of God.  If we believe with all our hearts that He knows our inmost thoughts, we shall experience comfort beyond words.  This life of peace, of aspiration, of communion, is possible to all.  The evil in us may be overthrown.  We may reproduce the life of Christ on earth.  We may become as He was—­one with God.  As the little water drop poured into a large measure of wine seems to lose its own nature entirely and take on the nature and the color of both the water and the wine; or as air filled with sunlight is transformed into the same brightness so that it does not appear to be illuminated by another light so much as to be luminous of itself; so must all feeling toward the Holy One be self-dissolved and wholly transformed into the will of God.  For how shall God be all in all, if anything of man remains in man?”