htful pause, "there doesn't seem
to be anything to say on that verse; it is all there. Will _you_ read
the next verse?"

Now the "you" whom he timidly addressed was our Marion. She doesn't
understand even now why her heart should have throbbed so strangely; and
her voice trembled as she read aloud the simple words:

"'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'"

"Free from what?" she asked abruptly.

The class stared. Clearly the art of asking questions was an unknown
accomplishment in that class. Mr. Pembrook looked at her through his
glasses; then he pushed his glasses up on his forehead. Finally he took
them off, and rubbed them carefully with the skirt of his coat before he
essayed to answer.

"Why, my dear young lady, I suppose it means free from sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ was speaking to his people, you know, to Christian people."

"Are Christian people free from sin?"

There was no note of cavil in Marion's voice. Her eyes were earnest and
serious; and she waited, as one waits in honest perplexity, to have a
puzzle solved. But she was known as one who held dangerous, even infidel
notions, and Mr. Pembrook, bewildered as to how to answer her, seemed to
feel that probably a rebuke was what she needed.

"It is not for us to find fault with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
my dear young lady. He spoke them, and they must mean what they say. We
are to accept them in all sincerity and humility, remembering that what
we know not now we shall know hereafter. That is the _Christian_ way to
do."

And then he cleared his throat and asked the next young lady to read the
next verse.

Two bright spots glowed on Marion's cheeks. She bent her head low over
her Bible, and it was with difficulty that she kept a rush of tears from
filling her eyes. Had she seemed to cavil at the words of her Lord when
she simply longed with all her soul to understand? _Did_ the promise
mean, You shall be free from sin? Had she a right to look forward to and
hope for the time when sin should have no more dominion? Then that other
sentence: "_Continue_ in my work." Just what did it mean? Could one who
was searching it eagerly and prayerfully, and trying to abide by its
directions, be said to be continuing in it?

There were a dozen questions that she longed to ask. She had sought the
Sabbath-school this morning in search of help. She felt blind and lame,
unable to take a step in any direction lest in her ignoranc