As is often the case with people who have very good memories, Ives sometimes over-relied on his recall. Some off-the cuff dates and recollections he made are clearly wrong. Others seem unlikely. John Kirkpatrick, in cataloging Ives' music, was persuaded that this song was written (or at least originated) earlier than the 1910 date Ives attached to it when preparing it for inclusion in his massive self-published volume of 114 Songs. Kirkpatrick's numbering places it next to songs written around 1900, and relates it to Kz 53 a, one of Ives' German songs, "Wie Melodien zieht se mir."

In this version, Evidence, the message of the song is that even when one is in a valley of shadows, the sun still shines brightly on the mountain. Even when in the total darkness of the night, this is still no more than a shadow, for the sun itself is still shining. The meaning is that God's grace is still present, even if the moment seems dark.

Throughout his career Ives was always capable of writing a very pretty song in relatively conventional style, so that fact that this is one of them does not settle the question whether it originated in 1910 (a time when Ives had discovered his mature and highly radical musical language). But the sentiment and the music itself is typical of the turn of the century.

The song has a grateful, flowing sound, with an octave leap to an upper register that seems to match the yearning message of the words. It is in progressive tonality; though it uses mostly conventional harmonies, their juxtapositions and sequence are strange. Each given harmony lingers for some time. The song, for instance, begins in with E major chord patterns in the sextuplets that flow throughout, then rises F major, G sharp major, B major, E flat major, and to F-7, which prepares for a final cadence (and a quite conventional one) to a final B flat, as far from the initial E major as possible.

This luminous final chord continues after the voice ends, with a piano line that sinks downward for two octaves as time seems to stand still and the music fades out into eternity, a typical Ives conclusion.

The process of moving upward through the song's seven chords from uncertainty to faith is a little too mechanical for the song to be truly first-rate Ives, but it is a pretty and serene piece.

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