THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 91 
or have the thidk skull of a bison, or you would 
not have found it necessary to spend so much 
valuable time and attention upon so poor a sub¬ 
ject; and if you are willing to bestow so much 
consideration upon one so little deserving, I 
shall gratefully avail myself of your generous 
instructions.” 
“ Be assured, my young friends,” was the re¬ 
sponse, “ it will be no unwilling labor to con¬ 
tinue these interviews, but a pleasure rather. 
In our next conversation, then, we will take 
another look at the treasures of divine skill 
found in the unseemly storehouse from which 
we have already drawn so many wonderful and 
beautiful things. I continue searching the tur¬ 
bid waters of the repulsive pond, in order that 
you may be duly impressed with the fact that 
where the uninstructed see nothing but loath¬ 
some barrenness God often hides the amplest 
attestations of his creative skill. The celestial 
ladder was but a beautiful dream to Jacob until 
he awoke, but when his eyes were opened, then 
it was that he exclaimed, ‘ Surely the Lord 
was in this place!’ God is all around us, in 
every place, in everything, yet we may be 
wholly unconscious of the glories of the divine 
