ilenced, just
when all seemed most needed! Can you understand it, Pastor?"

"No," said Gerhardt calmly. "Why should I? He understands who has it
all to do. But the cause, Berthold! The cause will not suffer. It is
God's custom to bring good out of evil--to give honey to His Samsons out
of the carcases of lions, and to bring His Davids through the cave of
Adullam to the throne of Israel. It is for Him to see that the cause
prospers, in His own time and way. We have only to do each our little
handful of duty, to take the next step as He brings it before us.
Sometimes the next step is a steep pull, sometimes it is only an easy
level progress. We have but to take it as it comes. Never two steps at
once; never one step, without the Lord at our right hand. Never a cry
of `Lord, save me!' from a sinking soul, that the hand which holds up
all the worlds is not immediately stretched forth to hold him up."

"One can't always feel it, though," said the old man wistfully.

"It is enough to know it."

"Ay, when we two stand talking together in Overee Lane [Overee Lane ran
out of Grandpont Street, just below the South Gate], so it may be: but
when the furnace door stands open, an King Nebuchadnezzar's mighty men
are hauling you towards it, how then, good Pastor?"

"Berthold, what kind of a father would he be who, in carrying his child
over a bridge, should hold it so carelessly that he let it slip from his
arms into the torrent beneath, and be drowned?"

"Couldn't believe such a tale, Pastor, unless the father were either
drunk or mad. Why, he wouldn't be a man--he'd be a monster."

"And is that the character that thou deemest it fair and true to give to
Him who laid down His life for thee?"

"Pastor!--Oh! I see now what you mean. Well--ay, of course--"

"Depend upon it, Berthold, the Lord shall see that thou hast grace
sufficient for the evil day, if thy trust be laid on Him. He shall not
give thee half enough for thy need out of His royal treasure, and leave
thee to make up the other half out of thy poor empty coffer. `My God
shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory'--`that ye,
always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good
work.' Is that too small an alner [Note 1] to hold the wealth thou
wouldst have? How many things needest thou beyond `_all_ things'?"

"True enough," said Berthold. "But I was not thinking so much of
myself, Pastor--I've had my life: I'm two