Straight through the piny forests, straight past the vocal
orchards, right in among the robins and the jays and the
startled thrushes, we dashed inexorable, and made harsh
dissonance in the wild-wood orchestra; but not for that was
the music hushed, nor did one color fade. Brooks leaped in
headlong chase down the furrowed sides of gray old rocks, and
glided whispering beneath the sorrowful willows. Old trees
renewed their youth in the slight, tenacious grasp of many a
tremulous tendril, and, leaping lightly above their topmost
heights, vine laughed to vine, swaying dreamily in the summer
air; and not a vine nor brook nor hill nor forest but sent up
a sweet-smelling incense to its Maker. Not an ox or cow or
lamb or bird living its own dim life but lent its charm of
unconscious grace to the great picture that unfolded itself
mile after mile, in ever fresher loveliness to ever unsated
eyes. Well might the morning stars sing together, and all the
sons of God shout for joy, when first this grand and perfect
world swung free from its moorings, flung out its spotless
banner, and sailed majestic down the thronging skies. Yet,
though but once God spoke the world to life, the miracle of
creation is still incomplete. New every spring-time, fresh
every summer, the earth comes forth as a bride adorned for her
husband. Not only in the dawn of our history, but now in the
full brightness of its noonday, may we hear the voice of the
Lord walking in the garden. I look out upon the gray degraded
fields left naked of the snow, and inwardly ask, Can these dry
bones live again? And while the question is yet trembling on
my lips, lo! a Spirit breathes upon the earth, and beauty
thrills into bloom. Who shall lack faith in man's redemption,
when every year the earth is redeemed by unseen hands, and