But still I feel that his embrace Slides down by thrills through all things made, Through sight and sound of every place. As if my tender mother laid On my shut lips her kisses' pressure, Half waking me at night; and said "Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?" -Elizabeth Barrett Browning. NOTES 1. Read Paul's discussion of "The Unknown God" in Acts xvii. 22-34. 2. Fold of heaven and earth. A beautiful way of saying that God is all and in all. 3. For love. Because of love. 4. Slides down by thrills. Indicates the sympathetic omnipresence of God. See Note 2. 5. Be prepared to give the meanings of the following: fold of heaven and earth, secrets, embrace, slides down by thrills, tender, pressure, guesser. EXERCISES 1. What is your answer to the question in the first stanza? 2. Why is God not seen in the gold in the depths of mines? 3. Explain "from him all that's glory shines." 4. What meaning in “He wears a fold of heaven and earth across his face"? 5. Explain the fourth stanza. 6. How does the author finally make us see the child's thought of God? 7. How much interest does the average mother have in the sleeping child? 8. How nearly safe is the sleeping child under its mother's care? 9. In what larger sense is God's care extended to his children? ADDITIONAL READINGS FIELDS: The Captain's Daughter. WHITTIER: The Eternal Goodness. MRS. BROWNING: The Sleep. TENNYSON: Crossing the Bar. BROWNING: The Guardian Angel. "We Thank Thee." MRS. HEMANS: The Hour of Prayer. HOLMES: Chambered Nautilus. TENNYSON: Flower in the Crannied Wall. LONGFELLOW: The Legend Beautiful. THERE IS A LAND There is a land, of every land the pride, WE LIVE IN DEEDS We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time in heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. - Philip James Bailey. AFTER THE SHIPWRECK OUTSI UTSIDE of the Bible, no other story is so widely read by young people as the story of Robinson Crusoe. Our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers each heard the tale when they were mere children. The story is now nearly two hundred years old. The Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, first published in the year 1719, was based on the thrilling experiences of a sailor named Alexander Selkirk. Crusoe was on board a ship far out at sea when a fearful storm arose. The wild waves broke over the deck of the vessel. Suddenly there was a mighty shock. The ship had struck upon a rock. Eleven sailors hurriedly got into the one small boat of the ship and attempted to row to shore. A great wave dashed the frail boat in pieces and all the men were drowned except Crusoe, who was thrown violently against a rock to which he clung. Seeing the shore not far distant, he swam thither and climbed up the cliffs. That night he slept in a huge tree for fear of wild beasts. The next morning he sighted the wreck of the ship. The following story tells just what he did to secure tools, food, and other supplies. He lived on the lone island more than twenty years and had many strange and thrilling adventures. AFTER THE SHIPWRECK When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before. But that which surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock which I first mentioned, where I had been so bruised by being dashed against it. This being within about a mile from the shore where I was, and the ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, that at least I might have some necessary things for my use. A little after noon I found the sea very calm and the tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship. I saw evidently that if we had kept on board we had been all safe — that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company as I now was. This forced tears from my eyes again, but as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to extremity, and took the water. But when I came to the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board. For as she lay aground and high out of the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the second time I spied a small piece of rope hung down by the fore-chains so low that with great difficulty I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got up into the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather earth, and her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low almost to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and what was free. And first I found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuits, and ate as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose. Now I wanted nothing but a boat to furnish myself with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary to me. It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had. We had several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood. I resolved to fall to work with these, and flung as many of them overboard as I could manage for their weight, tying every one with a rope that they might not drive away. When this was done, I tied four of them fast together at both ends, as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank |