thank
the Lord, I came to my senses before I was overcome, and I escaped that
horror. Oh, but I was storm-tossed for a while--I thought of it
yesterday when we had the rough sea--but in time I came out into the
calm again, just as we are coming today on this voyage. But not until I
had said more than once 'not my will, but thine, O Lord, be done,' and
said it from my heart, did I get peace. Then I began to see that the
girl had come into my life, not to be my wife, but to turn my life into
new channels. I, with the rest of the world of which I was a part, had
no definite views or high ideals of life, death, 'and that vast
forever;' and something was needed to change my easy-going course. When
I realized that Julia Elston had been the instrument of the Lord in
doing that, I had to put away resentment and acknowledge the hand of God
in it. I read in the parables of our Lord that a certain merchantman had
to sell all he had in order to get the purchase money to buy the Pearl
of Great Price. Why should it be given me without cost?"

"We all have to pay for it."

"And I who had made no sacrifice, railed against fate because I had been
asked to pay a trifle--no it was not a trifle; but I have paid, and hope
to continue to pay to the last call. Now, what do you say, brother?
Tell me what you think."

"Well, you have an interesting story, my brother, and I am glad you look
on your experiences in the right light. To get the woman one thinks he
ought to get, is, after all, not the whole of life. There are other
blessings. To have one's life changed from darkness into light; to have
one's journey turned from a downward course to one of eternal
exaltation; to obtain a knowledge of the plan of salvation,--these are
important. If one is on the right way, and keeps on that way to the end,
He who rules the world and the destinies of men, will see to it that all
is right. Sometime, somewhere, every man and every woman will come to
his own, whether in life or death, in this world, or the next."

"Thank you for saying that. Do you know, I am now glad that Julia did
not yield to my entreaties, and marry me out of pity. Think how I would
have felt when the realization of that had come to me. * * * * I found
this expression of Stevenson the other day, purporting to be a test of a
man's fortitude and delicacy: 'To renounce where that shall be
necessary, and not to be embittered.' Thank the Lord, I am not
embittered. Some time ago I chose