In my mind is the stirring of a new life, as in the light of an early morning-glory; the voice of singing birds is in my heart, and an odour of blooming flowers expands itself in the delight of my new day.  I see the morning sun in a fixed form, yet flooding worlds with the radiations of its light and heat, and shining in its glory on the dew-bespangled blade of grass.  Oh Christ!—­thou art my Sun—­and I, the tiny blade of grass, rejoice in Thy Divine wisdom and love.  Look down upon me, oh, Thou holy One! from the “throne of Thy glory, and the habitation of Thy Holiness,” and exhale from me, through the dew of my sorrow, the incense of my love.  Draw me up from the earth, even as the sun draws up the bowed plants, and let me drink in the beautiful life of free heavenly airs.

NOON-DAY.—­How the light grows!  In the warm love of my soul a summer’s day glows—­so serene and bright, so full of ceaseless activities, that the fruits ripen in a smiling, rosy beauty.

The living Christ hath heard my soul’s prayer; and books, which I never before heard of, have revealed to me all those wonderful truths after which my spirit yearned.

First of all, the mystery of the Bible has been made clear to me.  I see it now as a beautiful whole.  The Infinite knew from the beginning that He was going to descend upon the earth, and take upon Himself a human nature, weak and ignorant and vicious; and that He was to purify and enlighten, and make Divine this fallen nature, that man might know God in a material form, and love Him.  All this is written out in the Bible.

I stand on the threshold of a wonderful science.  There are innumerable things that I do not comprehend in the Bible; but what I see and understand awakens in me a thrilling delight, and I can never exhaust this book; for it is full of the nerves of life; and I can no more number them than I can count the sensitive fibres that spread themselves from my brain, to the innumerable cellular tissues of my skin.  But as the body is full of a sentient life, so is every word of the Bible full of an indwelling life.

And now do I recognise the good that my patient, suffering old friend did me in my childhood; would that I had read the Holy Bible to her many other days.  Doubtless she is now a beautiful angel in Heaven.

The angels! and Heaven! now too do I understand the inner existence; and the dreams and visions of my childhood were, after all, blessed realities; and the dead father and the dead mother, after whom my childish heart yearned so lovingly, were revealed to me as a living father and a living mother, in a wondrously beautiful life.  Thus was a warm inner love kept alive in my soul; and now I know that death is but a new birth.  As a glove is drawn from the hand, so is the body drawn from the spirit; and, I too, will thus be born again.  Life is again crowned with a beautiful hope.