Page:Education and Life; (IA educationlife00bakerich).pdf/265

 *mon to all religions; and that in time God's full revelation will come to all nations.

"Whoe'er aspires unweariedly Is not beyond redeeming."

May we not ask if the experience distinctively called Christian is not an actuality, the highest blossom of religious growth—if it is not a realization possible for all, if it is not an ideal sweetly, nay, transcendently, inviting? One who has read the following lines from Goethe will never forget them; he has had a glimpse of the Holy of Holies:

"Once Heavenly Love sent down a burning kiss Upon my brow, in Sabbath silence holy;  And, filled with mystic presage, chimed the church bell slowly, And prayer dissolved me in a fervent bliss,—  A sweet, uncomprehended yearning Drove forth my feet through woods and meadows free,  And while a thousand tears were burning, I felt a world arise for me."

I sat on the veranda at my home at the close of a beautiful day. The western glow was fading into a faint rose color. The pine trees on the neighboring mountain top stood out in magnified distinctness against the bright background. A bird in a near tree sang its good-night song. Just over the mountain peak a star shone out like a diamond set in pale gold. The great earth silently turned and hid the star behind the pines. The ragged outline of mountains loomed up with weird effect. The breeze freshened and waved the branches of the elms gracefully in broader curves; it seemed to come down from the heights as if with a message. It was a time for meditation. My thoughts turned for a hundredth time to the significance of the higher