On the heights above the vega of Granada there rises the great
palace of the Alhambra. In the lower stories there are the
menial offices of domestic use. Above them are the living rooms,
the guest chambers, the halls of the Moorish kings; and far
above them all rises the great red tower into which the Moslem
kings could ascend to look upward to the stars and downward on
the valley, green with trees and beautiful with cities.
So God has made our lives. The lower stories serving the
needs of our material life, the higher ones of intellect and
affection, where we live in the joys of thought and friendship;
but high above them all rises the great watch-tower of the soul
in which the noise and toils of earth are lost in the great
stillness of the heights, and earth’s mysteries and sorrows
are interpreted by the higher providence of God.--F. F.
SHANNON.
(1382)