Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/342

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the paper-mill woods and there, smiling at them "over their right shoulders," hung the new moon!

Now Hernando knew there was nothing "in" seeing the new moon over the right shoulder. He did not believe that it has any influence whatever on our lives; but as he looked at that silver crescent smiling on a troubled world, a peace, such as he had never known, stole over his senses, and with it came that clear vision which reveals truth, clears up the mysterious connection between cause and effect, and the long lines of our destiny. Forgotten was Hernando's God of tradition and dogma; the beautiful system of ethics formulated at Shushan was indeed good—as far as it went; but that same beautiful system with God in it is religion, is wisdom, and at last Hernando had "found" it. Oh, the blessed truth! Nothing in this wide universe but God, Good, whose Being is manifested through us. One God, one "Great First Cause," and His effect, man and the universe the effect of God!