ared to acknowledge to Esther, but he managed to conceal
his feelings for her sake. Esther went up to her little corner room,
where she had a sewing table and a writing desk. When she had shut
herself in there she spread Walter's letter out before the Lord.

That meant that her simple mother faith said to God, "Oh, my Father, I
need wisdom now to write this letter. My boy, my first born son is in
need of Thee. But he has turned to his mother for help. Show me how to
say the right thing. For I can not do it without thy help."

And then without any hesitation or fear of the final result, Esther
wrote to Walter. It was a sacred letter, but a part of it belongs to
this narrative.

"You must not forget, boy," Esther went on after cheerfully reminding
him that he was not the only person in the world to have such an
experience; "you must not forget that religion is a universal thing, and
that it is a cry of the heart for God. It is not a matter to figure out
like mathematics, but it is an answer to the real longing of the soul
for a divine life in the world.

"You must not forget, either, that your faith does not depend on what
someone else says, but upon the actual needs of your own life. You know
that you need God. You know that you are wretched now because you are
afraid God has been taken away. Isn't that a sign to you that your
simple faith as you have been taught it here at home is a real and
necessary thing? What Dr. Powers said (and you must remember you may not
have understood his full meaning), what he said has not changed the
everlasting facts of sin and moral responsibility and the facts of the
plain right and wrong of the world. And when it comes to the
resurrection and a future life--all we can do is to take Christ's word
for it. He knows more about it than Dr. Powers knows. Your mother is no
theologian and no great scholar, but when it comes to taking Dr.
Powers's word as against Jesus's own statements about himself, I don't
hesitate, and you ought not to. Jesus is the way and the truth and the
life. Just trust him. It is what thousands of souls bigger than yours
have done and they have found the light as you will. We are praying for
you, father and I. Father can give you better reasons than I can,
perhaps, because he knows more, but listen to me, boy, to your mother,
whose heart goes out to you at this time. You don't have to answer all
the hard questions of religion all at once. Some of them can bide for an