Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

196 RHYS LEWIS.
was of the spiritual light he spoke— that for which he
had heen groping, as he used to say. 'And there shall be light
in the evening!' Wonderful! Wonderful! Obliged to lose
Loth eyes before beginning to see ! ' For judgment I am come
into this world, that they which see not might see.' I would
rather than a good deal had he been professing; but I never
considered him irreligious. Abel Hughes alwaj-s said Bob had
a better grain about him than the half of us. But what makes
my mind easiest is his saying, a fortnight ago, that he was not
careless about the things of religion, and that the cry of his
soul was for the light. God has said, ' Ye shall seek me and
find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.' ' I
said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.' 'Ask and
it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find,' said the
Saviour on the Mount. I shall not readily believe Bob to be
lost. I hope I'm not sinning, but I feel so certain he is in
heaven that, if I go there myself, as I expect I shall, and find
him not there, it will be enough to destroy utterly all my
happiness."
Well, there is nothing for me, at this moment, but to trust
that my mother's faith was true. Some learned man, reading
what I am about to say, would, doubtless, laugh at me. Let
him laugh. But I believe that pious people, however ignorant
they may be, possess some sort of spiritual perception, and
receive, perhaps unconsciously, some kind of telegrapliic com-
munications from the eternal world, which are not permitted to
the Godless or, if permitted them, not understood. I am
perfectly well aware that this notion is incompatible with
the knowledge of some able men in this (enlightened) age
an age in which religious people are often looked upon as
old-fashioned, and the Bible is considered a harmless little
book enough, the promise being hinted that the discoveries
of science will shortly enable the boy at school to write upon
his slate, between breakfast and dinner, all the mysteries
of nature, the secrets of being, and the aspirations of the im-
mortal soul.
Although my recollection of it is still fresh, I neither wish
nor intend to linger long over the period when that which was
mortal of my brother lay waiting to be taken from our eight for