THE BLUE SKY 
63 
The faith is strange with us now, and yet how 
well founded it was in natural religion. In- 
stinctively all races of men, whether savage 
or civilized, lift the hands and raise the eyes 
toward the heavens as though beyond the blue 
dome rested the seat of final justice, and its 
shining light was a manifestation of Supreme 
Power. The spiritual in man has always looked 
upward and counted the future abiding-place 
as somewhere beyond that sky; but the light 
wherewith God ‘“‘covereth himself as with a 
garment” is no longer regarded as a token and 
a message—a call to thanksgiving and to prayer. 
The muezzin’s voice, the angelus bell—some 
human ritual—now bends the knee where once 
the white dawn drew all eyes as to the open 
gate of paradise. In the long centuries of his- 
tory how many prophets and peoples have gone 
their way to the grave following symbols of 
their own making—devices that have turned 
to dust and mingled with human clay! How 
many times has the old order changed! How 
many times have new faiths, new symbols, new 
signs arisen! Yet the light in the east has 
never changed, never lost its lustre. Its glory 
was from the beginning as it shall be to the 
ending. Modern science may write it down as 
In ancient 
religion. 
The dawn 
as a symbol, 
