"...I have made the various religions of the world my deepest study during many years. I perceive that however they seem to differ, all have had their origin in the inherent faculty which enables Man, environed by a visible universe, to divine an invisible one of incalculably greater moment. Confucian, Zoroastrian, Hebrew, Catholic, Greek and Protestant - nay, and heathen - all with one accord and with one common impulse, bow down before a symbolised or inwardly perceived Unseen; and all of these number among their multitudes fine souls, who in supremest moments, rise to super-mundane heights or become conscious of the approach of super-mundane beings.
"I have, moreover, held converse with men and women of many classes and creeds, whose self-revealments, indubitably sane and trustworthy, have convinced me that they know more than I of what is beyond mere mortal ken. They have told me of inspired thoughts, of illuminating visions, of visits from departed friends. They have shown me that there is an inner, converting power, which regenerates guilty souls. They have breathed holy atmospheres; and beyond more else, they have had ecstatic seasons of communion with One of ineffable Name and Nature. To discredit these would be to malign humanity; to scoff at Moses and Elias upon the Mount of transfiguration; to shame the Christ, Who talked with them; and to pronounce God, Himself, a liar and a cheat.
"A faculty that belongs to mankind belongs to me. Believing, to the core of my heart, in the verity of a spiritual universe, whose immortal inhabitants were once prisoners of mortality even as I, reason tells me that, in the distribution of heavenly gifts, I shall not be overlooked. There must come an hour when I shall no longer grope in twilight, but walk joyfully among men, blessed with the infinite consolation of open sight.
"I await my special revelation. Meanwhile it becomes me to wait in silence."
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