od intended to draw my soul so
near to Him that I should die of the splendour of this living, My
raptures were not only caused by the sense of the immediate
Presence of God--this is a distinctive rapture running through and
above all raptures, but there are lesser ecstasies caused by the
meeting of the soul with Thoughts or Ideas, with melodies which
bear the soul in almost unendurable delight upon a thousand
summits of perfection; and with an all-pervading rapturous Beauty
in a great light. There is this peculiarity about the manner of these
thoughts and melodies and beauties--they are not spoken, heard, or
seen, but _lived._ I could not pass these things to my reason and
translate the Ideas into words or the melodies into sounds, or the
beauty into objects, for spirit-living is not translatable to earth-living,
and I found in it no words, no sounds, no objects, and I
comprehended and I lived with that in me which is above Reason
and of which I had, previously to these experiences, had no
cognisance.

There came a night when I passed beyond Ideas, beyond melody,
beyond beauty, into vast lost spaces, depths of untellable bliss, into a
Light. And the Light is an ecstasy of delight, and the Light is an
ocean of bliss, and the Light is Life and Love, and the Light is the
too deep contact with God, and the Light is unbearable Joy; and in
unendurable bliss my soul beseeches God that He will cover her
from this most terrible rapture, this felicity which exceeds all
measure. And she is not covered from it. And she beseeches Him
again; and she is not covered; and being in the last extremity from
this most terrible joy, she beseeches Him again: and immediately is
covered from it.

* * *

My soul, my whole being, is terrified of God, and of joy. I dare not
think of Him, I dare not pray; but, like some pitiful and wounded
child, I creep to the feet of Jesus.

When on the following evening once more the day closes and I
compose myself for the night, I wonder tremblingly to what He will
again expose me; but for the first time in six weeks I fall into a
natural sleep and know no more until the morning.

Then I understand that the lesson is over. Mighty and Terrible God,
it was enough!

In the light of these measureless joys what is any earthly joy? What
is the very greatest experience of earthly happiness but so much
waste paper?

What are the joys of those vices for which men sell their souls, but
soap-bubbles!

The wh