•^ When I lived in the woods of Indiana, I used to hear a great deal of talk about the inflorescence of the prairies in spring. I tried to imagine what it was. I had never seen a prairie, and ^ John Caird, Aspects of Truth, 211.
268 A GOODLY HERITAGE
I was filled with curiosity to see one, especially at that season of the year when the flowers were in bloom, of which I had heard such glowing descriptions. I had to make up some sort of notion respecting them, and I did the best I could. I put my garden alongside of another, and I added several others to these ; and then I thought of all the flowers they would contain ; but it was a com- paratively limited idea that I had in my mind. And I remember very well the morning when I first rode out upon a real rolling prairie. After passing through a piece of woods I struck it. The sun was shining aslant — for it was about nine o'clock ; the dew was on the grass and on the flowers ; and very soon I was out at sea — or the effect was the same as if I had been. I could see no timber in any direction. It looked as though the prairie went to a point where the sky touched it, in front, on the right, and on the left. The flowers covered every little swell and hillside. It seemed as if all the flowers in creation had been collected there.
Instead of little bits of flower-beds here and there, there were vast stretches of flowers. Here was a patch of pansies a mile long; there was a patch of tulips two or three miles long; and here was a patch of phlox flve or six miles long. Here were great quantities of one sort of flowers, and there were great quantities of another sort. Further than the eye could reach the ground was covered with flowers. It looked as though the sun had dropped down upon the earth and stained everything with its colours. And it was easy to conceive that if I should go on, and on, and on, if I should travel all day, and to-morrow, and the next day, and next week, I should still find flowers. And oh, what was my garden-conception of a prairie compared with what I took in when I saw one ?
You build up your idea of God from the household, from the best persons you know, and from the highest experiences that you have had. You gather together on earth all those concep- tions which to you make a heroic, noble, resplendent being, and the sum of these you call God. But how different is the idea which you have of Him now from that which you will have of Him when you see Him as He is ! ^
Lord, what remains ?
When I would count my gains, I find that Thou hast torn them all away;
And under summer suns I shrink with cold,
Shiver, and faint with hunger, yet behold My brethren strong and satisfied and gay,
1 H. W. Beecher.
PSALM XVI. 5, 6 269
I had a friend
Whose love no time could end : That friend didst Thou to Thine own bosom take;
For this my loss I see no reparation :
The earth was once my home : a habitation Of sorrow hast Thou made it for his sake.
I had a dream
Bright as a noontide beam : I sought for wisdom. Thou didst make its taste
(Which was as spice and honey from the south)
Ashes and gall and wormwood in my mouth. Was this the fruit I sought with so much haste ?
I had a love
(This bitterest did prove) ; A mystic light of joy on earth and sky ;
Strange fears and hopes ; a rainbow tear and smile,
A transient splendour for a little while, Then — sudden darkness : Lord, Thou knowest why.
What have I left ?
Of friend, aim, love, bereft ; Stripped bare of everything I counted dear.
What friend have I like that I lost ! what call
To action ? nay, what love ? Lord, I have all And more beside, if only Thou art near.^
4. How can we possess God ? We possess things in one fashion and persons in another. The lowest and most imperfect form of possession is that by which a man simply keeps other people off' material good, and asserts the right of disposal of it as he thinks proper. A blind man may have the finest picture that ever was painted ; he may call it his, that is to say, nobody else can sell it, but what good is it to him ? Does the man who draws the rents of a mountain-side, or the poet or painter, to whom its cliffs and heather speak far-reaching thoughts, most truly possess it ? The highest form of possession, even of things, is when they minister to our thought, to our emotion, to our moral and intel- lectual growth. Even them we possess really, only according as we know them and hold communion with them.
But when we get up into the region of persons, we possess ^ Adeline Sergeant.