Читать книгу Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land: Impressions of Travel in Body and Spirit - Henry Van Dyke - Страница 8

Happy is the man that seeth the face of a friend in a far country: The darkness of his heart is melted in the rising of an inward joy. It is like the sound of music heard long ago and half forgotten: It is like the coming back of birds to a wood that winter hath made bare. I knew not the sweetness of the fountain till I found it flowing in the desert: Nor the value of a friend till the meeting in a lonely land. The multitude of mankind had bewildered me and oppressed me: And I said to God, Why hast thou made the world so wide? But when my friend came the wideness of the world had no more terror: Because we were glad together among men who knew us not. [page 22] I was slowly reading a book that was written in a strange language: And suddenly I came upon a page in mine own familiar tongue. This was the heart of my friend that quietly understood me: The open heart whose meaning was clear without a word. O my God whose love followeth all thy pilgrims and strangers: I praise thee for the comfort of comrades on a distant road.