morning, by one stroke of wing, can make circuit of the whole stellar
system and be back in time for matins! Perhaps yonder twinkling
constellation is the residence of the martyrs; that group of twelve
luminaries is the celestial home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep
of light is the dwelling-place of angels cherubic, seraphic,
archangelic. A mansion with as many rooms as worlds, and all their
windows illuminated for festivity.

Oh, how this widens and lifts and stimulates our expectation! How
little it makes the present, and how stupendous it makes the future!
How it consoles us about our pious dead, that instead of being boxed
up and under the ground have the range of as many rooms as there are
worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is the Father's house, in which
there are many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion,
how can I endure the transport, the ecstasy, of such a vision! I must
obey my text and seek Him. I will seek Him. I seek Him now, for I call
to mind that it is not the material universe that is most valuable,
but the spiritual, and that each of us has a soul worth more than all
the worlds which the inspired herdsman saw from his booth on the hills
of Tekoa.

I had studied it before, but the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, never
impressed me as it did this summer. It is admittedly the grandest
Gothic structure in the world, its foundation laid in 1248, only two
or three years ago completed. More than six hundred years in building.
All Europe taxed for its construction. Its chapel of the Magi with
precious stones enough to purchase a kingdom. Its chapel of St. Agnes
with masterpieces of painting. Its spire springing five hundred and
eleven feet into the heavens. Its stained glass the chorus of all rich
colors. Statues encircling the pillars and encircling all. Statues