The Republican journal., 1910-10-20
INSTANTS OF VISION.

INSTANTS OF VISION.
/ Grew James E. c. Sawyer, D. D.. in the New
/ York Observer.)
In his old age, St. John remembers
and records the most eventful and
memorable hour Of his life, that of his
first meeting with Jesus! ut was about
the tenth hour So also in his ''Vita
Nuova," Dante infinitely speaks of the
very instant when love began to lord it
over his soul, the instant of his first
meeting with Beatrice, when he was only
nine years old: 'At that instant, say
truly that the spirit Of life which dwell
eth in the most secret chamber of the
heart began to tremble with such vio-
least pulses, and trembling said these
words: Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens
dominabitu mihi.
In her beautiful story, "Anne Sew
erin," Mrs. Craven says: Those who
arrive now at Rome by the railway, and
rush like whlrlwind into a station,
which has nothing in its first aspect to
distinguish it from that of one of the
most obscure places in the world, cannot
imagine the effect which the words 'Ecco
Roma! formerly produced, when on ar
irving at the point in the road from
which the Eternal City could be described
for the first time, the position stopped
his horses, and pointing it out to the
traveller in the distance, pronounced
them with that Roman accent which is
grave and sonorous as the name of Rome
itself"
Doctor Thomas Arnold minutely des-
| cr1hoS bic iv,,proCciopc hiS fret clio Of
Rome, and on a subsequent visit wrote
to his wife. 'Again this date of Rome,
the most solemn and interesting that my
hand can ever write, and even now more
interesting than when he saw it last
When Martin Luther, a young and OBJ
scure monk, entered Rome his heart was
thrilled with religious emotion. With
the words of the ancient|hymn of the pill
grims he saluted the city that seemed to
him sacred: 81 salute thee, U holy
Rome, Rome venerable through the
blood and the tombs of the martyrs. -
But the most eventful instant in his life
was to come after his establishment,
when, as he was painfully toiling up the
so-called Scala Santa, seeking peace to
his conscience, he heard heavenly voice
speaking to his heart the words, 1.-THE
just shall live by faith" He sprang to
his feet and walked down the stairs a
new man. The revelation of that instant
brought him in due time to another,
Thursday, April Is, 1921, when he
closed his reply at the Diet of Worms
with the words, 81 cannot revoke any
thing, nor do l wish to; since to 20
against ones conscience is neither safe
nor right; here l stand, l cannot do
otherwise. God help me- Amen"
Sometimes sudden vision of the beau
tiful, the sublime or the terrible in ma
ture gives sense of inspiration and en-
largement to the SOUL The first expert
ence OF storm at sea, the first sight of
MT. Blanc or the Matterhorn, a night on
Mt. Washington or the Rhigi Kuhn. the
mystic loneliness of the sunrise. the song
of the hermit thrush in the lonely wilder
ness, the whisper of the pines, the mani
fold and solemn music of the surges
breaking on the shore in the darkness.
create an emotion never to be forgotten.
There are instants when all the starry
armament is alive with God. The poetic
and spiritual suggestions of nature in
moments OF susceptibility to her deeper
meanings haunt us ever after, and we
cannot stoop to folly without being
rebuked by them.
The noblest literature teaches us in
like manner. Its most inspiring infu-
ences come unexpectedly. There are
moments in our reading that become
eternal. The great books which we
know best we know as whole vaguely
after all; and were we to commit them
to memory our knowledge Of them would
in general still be vague; but there are
particular scenes, characters, individual
lines, which have suddenly created in US
lofty and never to be forgotten thoughts
and imaginations. These episodes of
our reading become permanent part of
our mental and spiritual environment.
The influence of the Holy Scriptures
even is mainly that of certain scenes and
passages that suddenly illumined or COM
forted US and have been part of us ever
SINCE
In like manner come to us the most
beautiful and best influences from the
human lives about US. Of the deeper
nature of even our dearest friends we
get fragmentary revelations, and their
purity, truth, sympathy and unselfsh-
ness, though they may be constant quail
ties, come to our consciousness not in a
general way, but in moments of transfg-
uration on their part or of unusual illumi-
nation on our own. Thus their virtues
tain hours in their lives, or with particu-
lar memories of their looks or their ex-
pressions. We already knew them to be
good and loving; but in a particular mo-
ment of great joy or sudden anxiety, or
deep sorrow, or divine quickening, they
suddenly were manifested more fully
than ever before.
Many years ago a little girl sat on
Sunday afternoon in low rocking chair
reading book. One who was walking
by her was arrested by an unearthly
beauty of expression on the familiar
face, always sweet and beautiful to him,
but just then displaying something
strange and wonderful, the like of which
he had never seen before; there was
radiance in the face of his own child
which struck him with awe and instantly
stirred questions that he could not an
swer. Before morning his little girl
was suffering from malignant disease
which terminated fatally in less than
three days. Her face as he saw it that
afternoon has always seemed heavenly
vision. That one moment is enough to
assure him of the reality of GLORY