Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/55

 Again, how cheering, how inspiring to the hearts of all this most beautiful spectacle is! Here we are, sisters and brothers, many of us meeting one another perhaps for the first time, and yet feeling quite at home as if in the bosom of one family, as if nestled in the embrace of one Divine Mother. Not a joint push for increased political powers, not a common effort for social emancipation, not a united aspiration to clothe the motherland with the wealth of improved industries — intimately dear though these, one and all, be to us — none of these, is the immediate occasion for this gathering. It is- the holy affinity of heart to heart, it is the God-inspired love of soul for soul, it is the Heaven-woven tie of kindred faith and aspiration, that is the motive-power of this meeting. The fellowship of spirit which is the bed-rock of social structure, the innermost resort of human intercourse, is typified in this Conference. Here we behold the great glory of the Divine Inspirer of all righteousness in the miracles that He has wrought in the hearts and souls of thousands who, attracted