“Whither leads this pathway, little one?”–
“It runs just on and on, is never done.”
“Whither leads this pathway, mistress fair?”–
“That path to town, sir; to the village square.”
“Whither leads this pathway, father old?”–
“To the white quiet of the churchyard fold.”
Different persons continually give a different answer to the same question. Our eyes are alike, and yet no two persons see the same picture on the canvas. Our ears are constructed on the same pattern, and yet no two hear the same song as they listen side by side to the singer. The world is not the same to any two persons. We carry within us a mysterious power, which interprets to us whatever we see or hear of the sights and voices of the outside world; and this power is distinct in each one. Thus it happens continually that the same voice falls upon the ears of two different persons, and is altogether different to the two. Each hears what his own soul is prepared for hearing.
We have an illustration of this in the story of Christ. One day a voice was heard in the temple. It was a Divine voice speaking from heaven. The people standing about the Master heard it, and were strangely impressed by it. Yet they were not all impressed in the same way. Some thought it thundered; the voice awed and terrified them. Others thought an angel had spoken. It was the same sound; the difference was in those who heard it. The mood of their spirit gave tone to the voice.
Page 1