A few years ago I was walking along the shore of the Susquehanna
River, in Harrisburg, Pa., accompanied by the little boy of my
friend, Dr. Hill. Night was fast closing down over the earth,
when the little fellow looked up and said: “Brother Shannon,
where does the river go to, when the night comes on?” I saw at
once that the question was big with the wonder and mystery of a
child’s mind. He had just come from his own home; he saw men and
women going home; he saw the birds flying to their homes in the
trees, and he wondered if the river had a home, too. Of course,
I could have answered that the river has its home in the sea,
but I said: “My child, the river flows on just the same through
the night as through the day.” And men say: “Where does the
soul go to when the night of death comes on?” The Master says:
“It goes on just the same, thrilled with my joy, united with my
destiny, and deathless in my life!”--F. F. SHANNON.
(1796)