ing as I was many
weeks' distance from any settled human habitation, I often had the
feeling of being more connected with the starry firmament than with
this Earth. In a curious way the bodily and the material seemed to
exist no longer, and I would be in spirit among the stars. They
served to guide us over the desert and I gradually became familiar
with them. And I used to feel as much a part of the Stellar World as
of this Earth. I lost all sense of being confined to Earth and took my
place in the Universe at large. My home was the whole great
Cosmos before me. The Cosmos, and not the Earth, was the whole
to which I belonged.

And in that unbroken quiet and amid this bright company of heaven
my spirit seemed to become intenser and more daring. Right high up
in the zenith, to infinite height, it would soar unfettered. And right
round to any distance in any direction it would pierce its way. The
height and distance of the highest and farthest stars I knew had been
measured. I knew that the resulting number of miles is something so
immense as to be altogether beyond human conception. I knew also
that the number of stars, besides those few thousands which I saw,
had to be numbered in hundreds of millions. All this was astonishing,
and the knowledge of it filled me with wonder at the immensity of
the Starry Universe. But it was not the mere magnitude of this world
that impressed me. What stirred me was the Presence, subtly felt, of
some mighty all-pervading Influence which ordered the courses of
the heavenly hosts and permeated every particle.

We cannot watch the sun go down day after day, and after it has set
see the stars appear, rise to the meridian and disappear below the
opposite horizon in regular procession, without being impressed by
the order which prevails. We feel that the whole is kept together in
punctual fashion, and is not mere chaos and chance. The presence of
some Power upholding, sustaining, and directing the whole is deeply
impressed upon us. And in this Presence so steadfast, so calm, so
constant, we feel soothed and steadied. The frets and pains of
ordinary life are stilled. Deep peace and satisfaction fill our souls.

Sandstorms so terrific that we cannot stand before them or see a
thing a foot or two distant come whirling across the desert, and all
for the time seems turmoil and confusion and nothing is visible. But
behind all we know the stars still pursue their mighty way. At the
back of everyt