"O the blessedness of the man who, leaning on no human support, standing on his own feet, yields himself like a little child to the Divine Guide in the heart! In the sacred monitions that come to him from within, he hears the music of the Eternal Voice, majestic in its authority, unutterably tender in its love. Contradiction and violence cannot even ruffle the flow of his good will; for the Everlasting Mercy of God is in his bosom, and, as a bird gathereth her young under her wings, that would take under its protection the meanest and the most unworthy. He may be reviled, persecuted, crucified, but while his innocent blood is flowing away, the sacred stream of pity and forgiveness, at once human and divine, gushes forth from his inmost heart, only the more abundantly upon his destroyers. He never loses himself in a vague and barren ecstasy. He flings himself, heart and soul, into the dear cause of human welfare, even though every pleasant tie of life is sundered in the act. Though, at the Divine bidding, he is ready to give up his life at any moment, yet he has an interest in living, which we, who live only for some small purpose of our own, know not of. Standing on his own feet, seeing with his own eyes, hearing with his own ears the voice of God, he knows by his own experience, that such is the possible privilege of every living man ; and he cannot be silent or inactive when those who might hear God, who might know the Truth, are prostrate in the dust, under the weight of heavy chains, or weakly leaning upon others as weak as themselves. My friends, we may agonize to feel for our fellow-men the profound sympathy that we should, and from the depths of which we may draw strength to toil and suffer in their behalf: but it is all in vain. We shall continue hard and cold, until, by our own living experience, we know what man is, and how, if he will, he may hear God speaking to him."
Blessings
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