THE following lines were written in the year 1897, when I was busily engaged in worldly pursuits, with no love for God or religion :—
Through mists entangled
Creep the moon's dull beams;
Night veils its stars in clouds,
Save one, which whispering seems
To say : I, too, like you, alone
Fly on through endless space,
In wonderment intensified,
God seeking face to face;
Till homing nightingale
Beyond my vision sings to me
This heaven-born song of melody:
O soul of longing, be thou free!
God's thought is yours; to it be true!
He gave me life to tell it you !
I classed myself at this time among the disciples of Robert Ingersoll : was addicted to the liquor and tobacco habits to excess; was exceedingly profane; stood among men a worldly sinner—and so continued. Again in the year 1900, while still in ignorance of God's everlasting presence, another momentary flash from the "lighthouse" of divine Love came to my consciousness, and took form in the lines which follow :—
