way, or
have a light in the room." I faithfully tried it, and in eight months I
began to experience relief; in a year and a half I could read all day;
in two years, all night. Let any one lose the use of his eyes for five
years, to know what that means. Afterwards I neglected the practice, and
my eyes grew weaker; resumed it, and they grew stronger.

The other event to which I have referred as occurring in my college
life was of a far different character, and compared to which all this is
nothing. It is lamentable that it ever should be an event in any human
life. The sense of religion [34] should be breathed into our childhood,
into our youth, along with all its earliest and freshest inspirations;
but it was not so with me. Religion had never been a delight to me
before; now it became the highest. Doubtless the change in its form
partook of the popular character usually attendant upon such changes at
the time, but the form was not material. A new day rose upon me. It was
as if another sun had risen into the sky; the heavens were indescribably
brighter, and the earth fairer; and that day has gone on brightening
to the present hour. I have known the other joys of life, I suppose,
as much as most men; I have known art and beauty, music and gladness; I
have known friendship and love and family ties; but it is certain that
till we see GOD in the world--GOD in the bright and boundless universe
we never know the highest joy. It is far more than if one were
translated to a world a thousand times fairer than this; for that
supreme and central Light of Infinite Love and Wisdom, shining over this
world and all worlds, alone can show us how noble and beautiful, how
fair and glorious, they are. In saying this, I do not arrogate to myself
any unusual virtue, nor forget my defects; these are not the matters
now in question. Nor, least of all, do I forget the great Christian
ministration of light and wisdom, of hope and help to us. But the
one thing that is especially signalized in my experience is this, the
Infinite Goodness and Loveliness began to be [35] revealed to me, and
this made for me "a new heaven and a new earth."

The sense of religion comes to men under different aspects; that is,
where it may be said to come; where it is not imbibed, as it ought to
be, in early and unconscious childhood, like knowledge, like social
affection, like the common wisdom of life. To some, it comes as the
consoler of grief; to others, as the d