is. Yet it
was beautiful,--"green pastures," "still waters." Could it be that these
people knew of an Elysian spot, unknown to Meccans--that their God led
them to such favored retreats? She could restrain her impatience no
longer.

"Where are the green pastures and still waters?" she cried, impetuously,
"that I too may go to them!"

The old man smiled with serene kindness. "Daughter," he said, "the green
pastures and still waters are the pleasant places of the soul. Hast thou
never known what it was to have doubts and fears, restlessness and
dissatisfaction in the present, uncertainty for the future, a feeling
that there is little in life, and a great gulf in death?"

"I have felt so almost every day," she replied, passionately.

"Hast thou not found comfort in thy gods?" he asked, gently.

"Alas, I fear to say that I have not!" she exclaimed.

"And why fearest thou thus?" he said.

"Ah, knowest thou not that the gods are gods of vengeance?" she replied
in an awed whisper.

"I know naught of your gods," he returned. "Our God is a God of love. He
gives us the certainty of his presence ever with us in this life, his
companionship in death, and the privilege of looking upon his face and
being 'forever with the Lord' in the world to come."

"And are you not afraid of death?" she asked. "To me it seems a dreadful
thing. It makes me shudder to think that I too must one day suffer the
struggle for breath, and then lie still and cold."

"To those who love the Lord 'to die is gain,'" he said. "Have we not
sung 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for Thou art with me'? Surely one who believes that,
and knows that he is going to be always with the Lord, always able to
look on his face, need not fear death."

"It is a beautiful thought," the woman said, bowing her head on her
hands.

"Yet not more beautiful than the thought that the Holy Spirit is ever
with us; that Jesus himself is our brother, and understands all our
little troubles; that he has promised to help us in overcoming all evil.
'For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and
to him that knocketh it shall be opened.' 'If a son shall ask bread of
any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? If he ask a fish,
will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
he offer him a scorpion? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how