beginnings," both in Genesis and John. Every child's earliest and
proudest Scriptural conquest in school was, almost as a matter of
course, the first verse in the Bible.

But the passage which I learned first, and most delighted to
repeat after Aunt Hannah,--I think it must have been her favorite
too,--was, "Let not your heart be troubled. In my Father's house
are many mansions."

The Voice in the Book seemed so tender! Somebody was speaking who
had a heart, and who knew that even a little child's heart was
sometimes troubled. And it was a Voice that called us somewhere;
to the Father's house, with its many mansions, so sunshiny and so
large.

It was a beautiful vision that came to me with the words,--I
could see it best with my eyes shut,-a great, dim Door standing
ajar, opening out of rosy morning mists, overhung with swaying
vines and arching boughs that were full of birds; and from beyond
the Door, the ripple of running waters, and the sound of many
happy voices, and above them all the One Voice that was saying,
"I go to prepare a place for you." The vision gave me a sens

of freedom, fearless and infinite. What was there to be afraid of
anywhere? Even we little children could see the open door of our
Father's house. We were playing around its threshold now, and we
need never wander out of sight of it. The feeling was a vague
one, but it was like a remembrance. The spacious mansions were
not far away. They were my home. I had known them, and should
return to them again.