194 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



the atmosphere grew tremulous as the lance-like 

 beams began to pierce it, the Voice which, in the 

 beginning, said, " Let there be light ! " As I gazed, 

 novel emotions arose within me. The experience 

 was fresh and solemn. The air was cool, delicious. 

 The earth was clothed as a queen in bridal 

 robes ; and Morn, with garments steeped in sweet- 

 smelling odors, her golden curls unbound and lifted 

 by unseen winds, streaming abroad as a yellow 

 mist, — like a maiden at the lattice of her lover, — 

 stood knocking at the windows of the East, and 

 saying : " Open to me, my love, my undefiled : for 

 my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the 

 drops of the night." 



If a person would know how sensitive his na- 

 ture is, how readily it responds to every exhibition 

 of beauty and power, how thoroughly adapted it 

 is, in all its faculties, to religious impressions, he 

 must leave the haunts of men, — where every 

 sight and sound distracts his attention, and checks 

 the free exercises of his soul, — and, amid the 

 silence of the woods, hold communion with his 

 Maker. It is the silence of the wilderness which 

 most impresses me. The hours of the Sabbath 

 pass noiselessly. N'o voice of conversation, no 

 sound of hurrying feet, no ffengor of bells, no roU 

 of wheels, disturb your meditations. You do not 

 feel like reading or talking or singing. The heart 

 needs neither hymn nor prayer to express its emo- 



