A happy little sparrow chirped upon the window sill, and some
children ran across the street bare-headed, exulting in the soft air.
All was innocence and sweetness. Mind and morals are greatly
influenced by weather. Many things seem right in the fog and gloom,
which we know to be wrong in the clear light of a sunny morning. The
events of the previous day came back to Joy's mind as she stood by
the window, and stirred her with a sense of strangeness and terror.
The thought of the step she had resolved to take brought a sudden
trembling to her limbs. It seemed to her the eyes of God were
piercing into her heart, and she was afraid.
Joy had from her early girlhood been an earnest and sincere follower
of the Christian religion. The embodiment of love and sympathy
herself, it was natural for her to believe in the God of Love and to
worship Him in outward forms, as well as in her secret soul. It was
the deep and earnest fervour of religion in her heart, which rendered
her music so unusual and so inspiring. There never was, is not and
never can be greatness in any art where religious feeling is lacking.
There must be the consciousness of the Infinite, in the mind which
produces infinite results.
Though the artist be gifted beyond all other men, though he toil
unremittingly, so long as he says, "Behold what I, the gifted and
tireless toiler, can achieve," he shall produce but mediocre and
ephemeral results.
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