letters from dickinson to joseph lyman


[Bible]

Some years after we saw each other last I fell to reading the Old & New Testament. I had known it as an arid book but looking I saw how infinitely wise & how merry it is.

Anybody that knows grammar must admit the surpassing splendor & force its speech, but the fathomless gulfs of meaning - those words which He spoke to those most necessary to him, hints about some celestial reunion - yearning for a oneness - has any one fathomed that sea? I know those to whom those words are very near & necessary, I wish they were more so to me, for I see them shedding a serenity quite wonderful & blessed. They are great bars of sunlight in many a shady heart.


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Last updated on May 12, 2000