THE JOY OF UNION IS SOUNDLESS I wonder why people make so much noise in calling upon God. Their beating of drums looks an empty sounding of little pebbles in a tin can. I again give you an illustration from life. The lover of a mere woman shuts all doors, extinguishes all lights, draws down curtains, and behind and veils meets his beloved. He is jealous of that rich joy. These hymn singers go singing all their life and sending up their muezzin-cries in the empty air. Surely God is no reality to such as these. For, if the sweetness of a woman takes a man to the pure silence of the soul, how much intenser must be the killing situation of the union of God?