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Show 238. In this process is our hope for redemption and salvation. Muir took himself seriously, and so shall I. His Stormy Sermons are to be taken quite literally as a gospel. He meant that Nature was the only church where his religion could be practiced. Go indoors on Sunday and listen to the man tell you about the Scriptures? That was absurd. Better go outdoors and listen to the Scriptures which are plain enough in the sun, wind, waters, earth, plants, and animals. Any book but the Book of Nature is a graven image. Any path but the pathless way of the wilderness is a rut which leads downward to Man's Fall. And one must wander, saunter, take time for such a transformation. I suppose I have, for a long time, implicitly accepted Muir's faith, but would have been embarrassed to express it in explicit terms, as a faith or gospel. What right but that of experience do I have? I remember a moonlit night, the flowing waters, the flowing clouds - but it's Nature I remember, and I believed. There was no human voice, only silent assent. I had been taught to expect something less subtle, perhaps a voice in English. If we wish a vision from Nature, we must listen to her voice, hear her language. The trouble is that Muir's religion is by its very nature a solitary one, in its practice and in its revelations. It may be that there can be no church of the wilderness. Perhaps there can never be more than one worshipper, since |