toughness. Then
men imitate the turtle as it draws in its head and neck, saying to
misfortune: "Behold the shell, and beat on that." But, God be thanked!
victory over trouble has been ordained. In the blackest hour of the
storm it is given to the vision faculty to lift man into the realm of
tranquillity. As travelers in the jungle climb the trees at night and
draw the ladder up after them, and dwell above the reach of wild
beasts and serpents, so the soul in its higher moods ascends into the
realms of peace and rest. In that dark hour just before Jesus Christ
entered into the cloud and darkness, and fronted His grievous
suffering, He called His disciples about Him and uttered that
discourse beginning: "Let not your hearts be troubled." Strange wonder
words; words of matchless genius and beauty.

Moreover, the vision faculty furnishes man his idea and picture of
God. Many suppose that all that is necessary to understand the divine
nature is that it should be stated distinctly in language. Greater
error there could not be. There can be no language for causing a
little child to understand the larger truths of heroism, art or
government. The unripe cannot understand the mature. Each mind must
paint its own picture of God. Nature itself is but a palette upon
which God draws her portrait. Reason furnishes the materials and
truths about God, and the imagination unites them in some noble
conception of His all-helpful nature. Everything in nature that has
power or beauty or benefit has received it from God. Moving along the
Alpine valleys the traveler sees huge bowlders lying in the stream,
and, looking to the mountain side, his eye rests upon the very cliff
from which the bowlder fell. Thus discerning the noble qualities in
mother or patriot, in hero or friend, we trace their beautiful
qualities back to God, from whom all noble souls borrow their
excellence. In the largest sense all the elements of power in sea and
sky and sun, all the beauty of the fields and forests, of summers and
winters, are letters in nature's alphabet for spelling out the name of
God. As a diamond has many facets, and every one reflects the sun, so
the universe itself is a gem whose every facet reflects the mind and
genius of God.

When reason has culled out of life and nature everything that excites
awe or admiration, everything that represents bounty and beauty, then
imagination lifts up all these ideals and sweeps them together and
melts them into