c.

You know what followed, do you not, ladies and gentlemen? "Dodd"
Weaver "indulged a hope" before he left the church.

CHAPTER XVIII.

If it were not for clouds and storms what a sunshiny world this would
be, to be sure! But there are clouds and storms everywhere that I know
anything about. There are legends of lands of perpetual sunshine, I
know. I have visited such climates. I have found clouds and storms
there also. The natives have told me that such were exceptional.
Doubtless they were, but the clouds shut out the sunshine there, just
the same as they do elsewhere, and I took a terrible cold once, one
that came near being the death of me, from going off without an
umbrella, in a country where I was positively assured it never
rained--at least, not at that season of the year.

So the result of all this is that I have learned to distrust the tales
of eternal fair weather in any spot on all this green earth, no matter
how strongly they may be backed up by the affidavits of good,
well-meaning, and otherwise truthful men and women.

It is so easy to state an opinion that is not based upon a sufficient
number of facts to warrant its assertion.

What has happened to me in the matter of sunshine and storm, in this
weather-beaten world, happened to "Dodd" Weaver in his religious
experience.

He started out boldly in his new life. He hoped and trusted that he
had entered into a physical, mental, and spiritual condition in which
all that he had been he might not be; all that he should be he might
become; all that he ought to hate he would hate; all that he ought to
love he would cherish. He longed to believe and he tried to believe,
that he had entered into that land of perpetual sunshine which had been
promised him by the minister and his friend. He hoped, and really
expected, to dwell there henceforth, beyond the reach of clouds, and
storms, and tornadoes.

But everybody knows that there were no good grounds for his expecting
such continuous, perpetual, and unbroken fair weather in his formerly
storm-swept sky. The question strikes one, then, why should he have
been promised this, and why led to hope for and expect it? See what
came of this too generous inducement held out to an anxious soul.

For some days, while "Dodd's" newly developed fervor ran high, he lived
in the blessed light. For this light is blessed, and it shines with a
divine warmth into the souls that are open to receive it. T