Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/187

 “One tendency unites them all.



“Perception is not whimsical, but fatal. If I see a trait, my children will see it after me, and in course of time all mankind, although it may chance that no one has seen it before me. My perception of it is as much a fact as the sun.

“The relations of the soul to the Divine Spirit are so pure that it is profane to seek to interpose helps. It must be, that when God speaketh, He should communicate not one thing, but all things, and new-create the whole. Whenever a mind is simple, and receives a divine wisdom, then old things pass away,—means, teachers, texts, temples fall; all things are made sacred by relation to it—one thing as much as another.



“Yet see what strong intellects dare not yet hear God Himself, unless He speak the phraseology of I know not what David, or Jeremiah, or Paul.



“If we live truly, we shall see truly. When we have new perceptions we shall gladly disburden the memory of its inward treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn.



“This is the ultimate fact which we so quickly reach on this as on every topic, the resolution of all into the Ever-blessed One. Virtue is the governor, the creator, the reality. All things real are so by so much of virtue as they contain.



“Let us not rove; let us sit at home with the cause. Let us shun and astonish the intruding rabble of men, and books, and institutions, by a simple declaration of the divine fact. Bid them take the shoes off their feet,