e his unknown lady, whose servitor he felt himself to be, and
looked about him with no common interest. About thirty people were clad
in white; there were a few others in ordinary clothes; but it was
impossible to tell just how many of these latter were there or with what
intent they had come. A young man in dark clothes, who stood near the
last comers peered at them very curiously: Alec saw another man sitting
under a tree, and gained the impression, from his attitude, that he was
suffering or perplexed. It was all paltry and pitiful outwardly, and
yet, as he looked about, observing this, what he saw had no hold on his
mind, which was occupied with Cameron's words; and under their
influence, the scene, and the meaning of the scene, changed as his mood
changed in sympathy.

A hymn began to rise. One woman's voice first breathed it; other voices
mingled with hers till they were all singing. It was a simple, swaying
melody in glad cadence. The tree boughs rocked with it on the lessening
wind of the summer night, till, with the cumulative force of rising
feeling, it seemed to expand and soar, like incense from a swinging
censer, and, high and sweet, to pass, at length through the cloudy walls
of the world. The music, the words, of this song had no more of art in
them than the rhythmic cry of waves that ring on some long beach, or the
regular pulsations of the blood that throbs audibly, telling our sudden
joys. Yet, natural as it was, it was far more than any other voice of
nature; for in it was the human soul, that can join itself to other
souls in the search for God; and so complete was the lack of form in the
yearning, that this soul came forth, as it were, unclothed, the more
touching because in naked beauty.

"Soon you will see your Saviour coming,
In the air."

So they sang. This, and every line, was repeated many times. It was only
by repetition that the words, with their continuity of meaning, grew in
ignorant ears.

"All the thoughts of your inmost spirit
Will be laid bare,
If you love Him, He will make you
White and fair."

Then the idea of the first line was taken up again, and then again, with
renewed hope and exultation in the strain.

"Hark! you may hear your Saviour coming."

It was a well-known Adventist hymn which had often roused the hearts of
thousands when rung out to the air in the camp meetings of the northern
States; but to those who heard it first to-night it came