like him never see the inside of a church. I cannot help wishing they
did. It humanizes people, quite apart from any higher influence it
exerts upon them. One reason, perhaps, why they do not care to go to
places of worship is that they are liable to hear the questions they
know something about handled in sermons by those who know very much less
about them. And so they lose a great deal. Almost every human being,
however vague his notions of the Power addressed, is capable of being
lifted and solemnized by the exercise of public prayer. When I was a
young girl we travelled in Europe, and I visited Ferney with my parents;
and I remember we all stopped before a chapel, and I read upon its
front, I knew Latin enough to understand it, I am pleased to say,--Deo
erexit Voltaire. I never forgot it; and knowing what a sad scoffer he
was at most sacred things, I could not but be impressed with the fact
that even he was not satisfied with himself, until he had shown his
devotion in a public and lasting form.

We all want religion sooner or later. I am afraid there are some who
have no natural turn for it, as there are persons without an ear for
music, to which, if I remember right, I heard one of you comparing what
you called religious genius. But sorrow and misery bring even these to
know what it means, in a great many instances. May I not say to you, my
friend, that I am one who has learned the secret of the inner life by
the discipline of trials in the life of outward circumstance? I can
remember the time when I thought more about the shade of color in a
ribbon, whether it matched my complexion or not, than I did about my
spiritual interests in this world or the next. It was needful that
I should learn the meaning of that text, "Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth."

Since I have been taught in the school of trial I have felt, as I never
could before, how precious an inheritance is the smallest patrimony
of faith. When everything seemed gone from me, I found I had still one
possession. The bruised reed that I had never leaned on became my staff.
The smoking flax which had been a worry to my eyes burst into flame, and
I lighted the taper at it which has since guided all my footsteps. And I
am but one of the thousands who have had the same experience. They have
been through the depths of affliction, and know the needs of the human
soul. It will find its God in the unseen,--Father, Saviour, Divine
Spirit, Virgin Mother, it must a