what it is just to love him a little. I went as duty
bade me; but the love of him did not make all duty happy. I had seen
you live differently--I saw others--and I could not be content as I was.

"We were in town then. One night I sat up all night, and gave the whole
night to it."

"To seeking Jesus?"

"I wanted to get out of my coldness and find him!"

"And you found him?"

"Not soon. I spent the night in it. I prayed--and I walked the floor
and prayed--and I shed a great many tears over the Bible. I felt as if
I must have what I wanted--but I could not seem to get any nearer to
it. The whole night passed away--and I had wearied myself--and I had
got nothing.

"The dawn was just breaking, when I got up from my knees the last time.
I was almost giving up in despair. I had done all I could--what could I
do more? I went to the window and opened it. The light was just
creeping up in the sky--there was a little streak of brightness along
the horizon, or of light rather, but it was the herald of brightness. I
felt desolate and tired, and like giving up hope and quest together.
The dull grey canopy overhead seemed just like my heart. I cannot tell
you how enviously I looked at the eastern dawn, wishing the light would
break upon my own horizon. I shall never forget it. It was dusky yet
down in the streets and over the housetops; the city had not waked up
in our quarter; it was still yet, and the breath of the morning's
freshness came to me and revived me and mocked me both at once. I could
have cried for sadness, if I had not been too down-hearted and weary.

"While I stood there, hearing the morning's promise, I suppose, without
knowing it--there came up from the streets somewhere below me, and
near, the song of a chimney-sweep. I can never tell you how it came! It
came--but not yet; at first I only knew what he was singing by the
notes of the air; but the next verse he began came up clear and strong
to me at the window. He was singing those words--

"'Twas a heaven below
My Redeemer to know;
And the angels could do nothing more,
Than to fall at his feet,
And the story repeat,
And the Lover of sinners adore.'

"I thought, it seemed that a band of angels came and carried those
words up past my window! And the dawn came in my heart. I cannot tell
you how,--I seemed to see everything at once. I saw what a heaven below
it is, to know the love of Christ. I think my heart was something like
the Ganges