hat is, so set them in
order--as to make them a good medicine for a sore heart, for instance?"

"Ah! I see, I see! Yes, the medicine for the heart must go in at the
ears."

"Not necessarily. It might go in at the eyes. Jesus gave it at the eyes,
for doubting hearts, when He said--Consider the lilies,--consider the
ravens."

"At the ears, too, though," said Willie; "just as papa sometimes gives a
medicine to be taken and to be rubbed in both."

"Only the ears could have done nothing with the words if the eyes hadn't
taken in the things themselves first. But where does this medicine go
to, Willie?"

"I suppose it must go to the heart, if that's the place wants healing."

"Does it go to what a doctor would call the heart, then?"

"No, no; it must go to what--to what a clergyman--to what _you_ call the
heart."

"And which heart is nearer to the person himself?"

Willie thought for a moment, then answered, merrily--the doctor's
heart, to be sure!"

"No, Willie; you're wrong there," said Mr Shepherd, looking, as he
felt, a little disappointed.

"Oh yes, please!" said Willie; "I'm almost sure I'm right this time."

"No, Willie; what the clergyman calls the heart is the nearest to the
man himself."

"No, no," persisted Willie. "The heart you've got to do with _is_ the
man himself. So of course the doctor's heart is the nearer to the man."

Mr Shepherd laughed a low, pleasant laugh.

"You're quite right, Willie. You've got the best of it. I'm very
pleased. But then, Willie, doesn't it strike you that after all there
might be a closer way of helping men than the doctor's way?"

Again Willie thought a while.

"There would be," he said, at length, "if you could give them medicine
to make them happy when they are miserable."

"Even the doctor can do a little at that," returned Mr Shepherd; "for
when in good health people are much happier than when they are ill."

"If you could give them what would make them good when they are bad
then," said Willie.

"Ah, there you have it!" rejoined Mr Shepherd. "That is the very closest
way of helping men."

"But nobody can do that--nobody can make a bad man good--but God," said
Willie.

"Certainly. But He uses medicines; and He sends people about with them,
just like the doctors' boys you were speaking of. What else am _I_ here
for? I've been carrying His medicines about for a good many years now."

"Then _your_ work and not my father's comes nearest to people to hel