odiment has in the past
been of incalculable advantage in making an appeal to an aboriginal type
of mind, since it really requires some sort of material personification,
which it can at least visualize, the conception of which serves as an
incentive for well-doing, and a deterrent from evil doing. It is
therefore infinitely preferable as a working basis to an unembodied
force."

Big Jerry brought a smile to the lips of the other two men by bursting
out, "Durned ef I understand. Them words air too powerful ederkated fer
me."

"But," said Rose, "what you say kind of frightens me, Mr. Talmadge. If
we can't ever see God, even in Heaven, how can we be sure that He _is_?"

"Have you ever seen ... love?" queried the minister softly.

"No, sir."

"Yet you know that _it_ is. You've never seen, tasted, touched or
smelled thought, but you know that it exists. In the same mysterious way
we know, and we shall know more perfectly hereafter, that the Great
Spirit--I've always loved that beautiful Indian expression--_is_."

"Yes," she said, somewhat uncertainly. "I _think_ that I understand. But
it's powerful hard to understand how I can be His little child if He
isn't a person."

"I don't wonder that it puzzles you, dear. It is hard for even the
oldest of us to try to imagine something entirely different from what we
have actually seen with our mortal eyes, and we can hardly conceive of a
spirit, or even a ghost, as something without some sort of a form, even
though it be a very misty one. But the _real_ you isn't the flesh that
we can see and touch, but the spirit that dwells inside, and, just as
some of your earthly father and mother is in your body, so you have
something of God within you, which was given you at birth. We call it
..."

"My soul."

"Yes. And as that was part of Him you are His child ... so are we
all--spiritual children."

"And Jesus? Was He His son in the same way?" whispered the girl.

"Exactly, only to a far greater degree than we can hope to be, for to
Him the Heavenly Father gave His spirit in fuller measure than He ever
had before to mankind, so that He might set an example to the world and
teach us the way we should try to live."

There was silence for a moment, and then Smiles spoke the thought that
had been troubling her. "But, Mr. Talmadge, if God hasn't any body and
our spirits are like him, why heaven ..."

Mr. Talmadge sent a glance of smiling appeal at the doctor as though to
say, "No