fell upon a verse of Mark's Gospel. He
stopped to read it; and then read it again. Suddenly he looked up at
the waiting girl.

"What is it, Padre? What does it say?"

He hesitated. He read the verse again; then he scanned the child
closely, as if he would read a mystery hidden within her bodily
presence. Abruptly he turned to the book and read aloud:

"'Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'"

The girl drew a long breath, almost a sigh, as if a weight had been
removed from her mind. "Did Jesus say that?" she asked in glad, eager
tones.

"Yes--at least it is so reported here," he answered absently.

"Well--_he_ knew, didn't he?"

"Knew what, child?"

"Why, Padre, he told the people to know--just _know_--that they
already had everything--that God had given them everything good--and
that if they would _know_ it, they would see it."

Externalization of thought? Yes; or rather, the externalization of
truth. Jose fell into abstraction, his eyes glued to the page. There
it stood--the words almost shouted it at him! And there it had stood
for nearly two thousand years, while priest and prelate, scribe and
commentator had gone over it again and again through the ages, without
even guessing its true meaning--without even the remotest idea of the
infinite riches it held for mankind!

He turned reflectively to Matthew; and then to John. He remembered the
passages well--in the past he had spent hours of mortal agony poring
over them and wondering bitterly why God had failed to keep the
promises they contain.

"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
shall receive."

All things--when ye ask _believing_! But that Greek word surely held
vastly more than the translators have drawn from it. Nay, not
believing only, but _understanding_ the allness of God as good, and
the consequent nothingness of evil, all that seems to oppose Him! How
could the translators have so completely missed the mark! And
Carmen--had never seen a Bible until he came into her life; yet she
knew, knew instinctively, that a good God who was "everywhere" could
not possibly withhold anything good from His children. It was the
simplest kind of logic.

But, thought Jose again, if the promises are kept, why have we fallen
so woefully short of their realization? Then he read again, "If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what