to take part once more in that national life; and over
here among strangers I want at least to Le no discredit to the dear old
country, and if possible to pick up some bit of knowledge or experience
that I can add to the common stock when I get home." A third man says:
"Yes, that's all true; but I don't often think of it in so big a way as
that. I want to see my old neighbors. And in these foreign Sundays I
get hungry for the old church I've been to ever since I was a boy, and
the prayers, and the old tunes." Another, perhaps, is silent; but to his
heart all the while are present the faces of his wife and children.

As they end their talk and go out together, up the harbor comes a gallant
ship, and at her peak float the stars and stripes; and at the sight
through each heart runs a common thrill of love and devotion. One man's
thought of home is the broader, and another's is the tenderer; but
America is home to them all.

So into each loyal soul there shines a ray from the divine Sun and Soul
of the universe. Each, according to his individual capacity, receives of
the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

To some minds the beauty of nature brings a deep and inspiring sense of
divinity. As one who has this sensibility looks on the hills and woods
flushing in the tender radiance of autumn, there comes to him perhaps no
articulate and conscious thought. He may not name the name of God, or
think it. But the soul is uplifted. There flows in upon it some high
serenity, some mysterious sense of ineffable good. If from such a scene
one returns to life's activities in braver, truer, and gentler mood,
there has been to him a divine revelation.

Some men are of a metaphysical turn of mind, and not only their thoughts
but all their emotional experience, all that directs their purpose and
animates their feeling, is cast in the mould of highly abstract ideas.
They express themselves in phrases which to most people seem cold or
meaningless,--an empty substitute for the warmth of religious life. But
to the thinker himself these phrases stand for profound realities. It
may be that words which have to other ears the dryness of a mathematical
formula are to him the expression of moral purpose and sacred trust.
Such an one may say: "I do not recognize a personal God, I do not know
that I shall have any personal immortality; but I believe in the moral
order of the universe and seek to conform to it. I fearlessly trust my