SABBATH IN THE WOODS. 195 



tions. Even tlie Bible lies at your side unlifted. 

 The letters seem dead, cold, insufficient. You feel 

 as if the very air was God, and you had passed into 

 that land where written revelation is not needed ; 

 for you see the Infinite as eye to eye, and feel him 

 in you and above you and on all sides. It is true, at 

 intervals, you turn to the Bible. You have your 

 reading moods, when some apt passage, some appro- 

 priate selection or chapter, is read, with a profit and 

 rapture never before experienced. But this mood I 

 believe to be the exception. Ordinarily, the spirit 

 is above the letter. The action of eye and voice in- 

 terfere w^itli the sentiment. You do not want to 

 read, but think. When you feel the presence of a 

 friend, have his hand in yours, see him at your very 

 side, you do not need to take up a letter and read 

 that he is with you. So with God : in the silence 

 of the woods the soul apprehends him instinctively. 

 He is every^vhere. In the fir and pine, which, 

 like the tree of life, shed their leaves every month, 

 and are forever green ; in the water at your feet, 

 which no paddle has ever vexed and no taint pol- 

 luted, rivalling that wliich is as " pure as crystal " ; 

 in the mountains, which, in every literature, havs 

 been associated wdth the Deity, you see Him wdio 

 of old time was conceived of as a " Dweller among 

 the hills." AVith such symbols and manifestations 

 of God around, you need not go to the lettered page 

 to learn of him. The Bible, with its print and 



