we all know, suffered
everything from her headaches and dyspepsia, besides the limb that was
broken at the fire. We see her well, and ought to believe what she says.
They often say, 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' An example has come to
our door, and why should we refuse to believe, when the proof is so
plain? For my part, I can believe though I do not understand, and I want
to know what there is in Christian Healing."

Mrs. Grant had spoken, and as she usually did, turned the tide of
thought in her direction.

"Why, yes, we all want to know if there is anything in it, but there is
an if--"

"_If!_ There it is again! I've no patience with people who always tumble
over an _if_. You can bar the very gates of heaven with that nipping
little word. It means doubt, and doubt is the destroyer of faith which
we _must_ have in this world, if we live at all."

Mrs. Grant unwittingly preached a little sermon, which not only served
to quell the confusion, but gave them a helpful thought to carry home.
Scattering good seed seemed to be her mission, and many a good word
dropped into fruitful soil, and took its time to bring forth.

CHAPTER IX.

"Soul, receive into thyself the warm and radiant life of heaven, to
breathe it out again as spiritual fragrance over other lives, and
so change this wilderness-world into the garden of the Lord! This
is the lovely moral which hides within the roses of June, and makes
more than half their sweetness."--_Lucy Larcom._

And Mrs. Hayden? The old expressions of joy seemed utterly inadequate to
describe her feelings. It seemed that she was veritably dreaming of
heaven, such a sense of largeness, of freedom, had come over her, so
much wider was her horizon, so much more clearly could she see and
understand the hard questions that had always puzzled her, and yet she
had, as it were, just come to the edge of the beautiful flower-dotted,
dew-besprinkled field that seemed spreading out before her. So long
hopeless, so long hungry as she had been after this taste, she only
hungered the more. Wonderingly she looked at herself walking about
without pain; with an elastic step and the springing freshness of
health; wonderingly she remembered the dull, nervous throbbing
headaches, contrasted with the refreshing clearness, the joyous comfort
and peace of mind which made thinking a tonic, and labor a luxury.

What a glorious strength of exhiliration seemed flowing in t