while we're here we are nothin' but a bundle of
laws, an' the same unknown law that moves the world around makes yo'
heart beat. But God is behind the law, an' if you get in harmony with
God's laws an' pray, He'll answer them. Christ knowed this, an' there
was some things that even He wouldn't ask for. When the Devil tempted
Him to jump off the top of the mountain. He drawed the line right
there, for He knowed if God saved Him by stoppin' the law of
gravitation it meant the wreck of the world."

"Bud," he went on earnestly, "I've lived a long time an' seed a heap
o' things, an' the plaines' thing I ever seed in my life is that two
generations of scoffers will breed a coward, an' three of 'em a
thief, an' that the world moves on only in proportion as it's got
faith in God.

"I was ruined after the war--broken--busted--ruined! An' I owed five
hundred dollars on the little home up yander on the mountain. When I
come back home from the army I didn't have nothin' but one old
mare,--a daughter of that Kathleena I told you about. I knowed I was
gone if I lost that little home, an' so one night I prayed to the
Lord about it an' then it come to me as clear as it come to Moses in
the burnin' bush. God spoke to me as clear as he did to Moses."

"How did he say it?" asked Bud, thoroughly frightened and looking
around for a soft spot to jump and run.

"Oh, never mind that," went on the Bishop--"God don't say things out
loud--He jes' brings two an' two together an' expects you to add 'em
an' make fo'. He gives you the soil an' the grain an' expects you to
plant, assurin' you of rain an' sunshine to make the crop, if you'll
only wuck. He comes into yo' life with the laws of life an' death an'
takes yo' beloved, an' it's His way of sayin' to you that this life
ain't all. He shows you the thief an' the liar an' the adulterer all
aroun' you, an' if you feel the shock of it an' the hate of it, it's
His voice tellin' you not to steal an' not to lie an' not to be
impure. You think only of money until you make a bad break an' loose
it all. That's His voice tellin' you that money ain't everything in
life. He puts opportunities befo' you, an' if you grasp 'em it's His
voice tellin' you to prosper an' grow fat in the land. No, He don't
speak out, but how clearly an' unerringly He does speak to them that
has learned to listen for His voice!

"I rode her across the river a hundred miles up in Marshall County,
Tennessee, and mated her to a y