of the morning, and the beauty of the hills and
valleys, I soon lost my sense of sadness and regret. For nearly an
hour I walked along the road to the 'Cat and Fiddle,' and then
returned. On the way back, suddenly, without warning, I felt that I
was in Heaven--an inward state of peace and joy and assurance
indescribably intense, accompanied with a sense of being bathed in a
warm glow of light, as though the external condition had brought about
the internal effect--a feeling of having passed beyond the body, though
the scene around me stood out more clearly and as if nearer to me than
before, by reason of the illumination in the midst of which I seemed to
be placed. This deep emotion lasted, though with decreasing strength,
until I reached home, and for some time after, only gradually passing
away."

The writer adds that having had further experiences of a similar sort,
he now knows them well.

"The spiritual life," he writes, "justifies itself to those who live
it; but what can we say to those who do not understand? This, at
least, we can say, that it is a life whose experiences are proved real
to their possessor, because they remain with him when brought closest
into contact with the objective realities of life. Dreams cannot stand
this test. We wake from them to find that they are but dreams.
Wanderings of an overwrought brain do not stand this test. These
highest experiences that I have had of God's presence have been rare
and brief--flashes of consciousness which have compelled me to exclaim
with surprise--God is HERE!--or conditions of exaltation and insight,
less intense, and only gradually passing away. I have severely
questioned the worth of these moments. To no soul have I named them,
lest I should be building my life and work on mere phantasies of the
brain. But I find that, after every questioning and test, they stand
out to-day as the most real experiences of my life, and experiences
which have explained and justified and unified all past experiences and
all past growth. Indeed, their reality and their far-reaching
significance are ever becoming more clear and evident. When they came,
I was living the fullest, strongest, sanest, deepest life. I was not
seeking them. What I was seeking, with resolute determination, was to
live more intensely my own life, as against what I knew would be the
adverse judgment of the world. It was in the most real seasons that
the Real Presence came, and I was aw