r when we sin, because we 'miss the mark.' But the punishment
lasts only as long as the sin continues. And we suffer only until we
know that God is infinite good, and that there is no evil. That is the
truth, I feel sure, which Jesus came to teach, and which he said would
make us free. Free from what? From the awful beliefs that use us, and
to which we are now subject, until we learn the facts about God and
His creation. Don't you see that infinite good could never create
evil, nor ever permit evil to be created, nor allow it to really
exist?"

"Well, then, what is evil? And where did it come from?"

"That we must wait to learn, Rosendo, little by little. You know, the
Spanish proverb says, 'Step by step goes a great way.' But meantime,
let us go forward, clinging to this great truth: God is infinite
good--He is love--we are His dear children--and evil was _not_ made by
Him, and does not have His sanction. It therefore cannot be real. It
must be illusion. And, being such, it can be overcome, as Jesus said
it could."

"_Na_, Padre--"

"Wait, Rosendo!" Jose held up his hand. "Carmen is doing just what I
am advising you to do--is she not?"

"Yes, Padre."

"Do you think she is mistaken?"

"Padre, she knows God better than she knows me," the man whispered.

"It was you who first told her that God was everywhere, was it not?"

"Yes, Padre."

And the mind of the child, keenly sensitive and receptive to truth,
had eagerly grasped this dictum and made it the motif of her life. She
knew nothing of Jesus, nothing of current theology. Divine Wisdom had
used Rosendo, credulous and superstitious though he himself was, to
guard this girl's mind against the entrance of errors which were
taught him as a child, and which in manhood held him shackled in
chains which he might not break.

"Rosendo," Jose spoke low and reverently, "I believe now that you and
I have both been guided by that great mind which I am calling God. I
believe we are being used for some beneficent purpose, and that it has
to do with Carmen. That purpose will be unfolded to us as we bow to
His will. Every way closed against me, excepting the one that led to
Simiti. Here I found her. And now there seems to be but one way open
to you--to go back to Guamoco. And you go, forgetful of self, thinking
only that you serve her. Ah, friend, you are serving Him whom you
reflect in love to His beautiful child."

"Yes, Padre."

"But, while we accept our tasks grat