speak of, is a lot too big for us to take home alone. Maybe you'll
think I'm preaching, but I don't care, if I say that for God to handle
alone, it is not big enough. He makes the stars, and gives us his Son,
without any help from us. Nobody else can do that. But he won't make our
League at home a success without us; and all of us together can't do it
without Him. I'm not saying I know how to do it, even then, but that's
the way it looks to me. Why, Joe," he said with sudden intensity as he
faced Joe Carbrook, "if you ever get hold of the Big Idea, and the Big
Idea gets hold of you, something is sure to happen, something bigger
than any of us can figure out now. I know you have it in you."

All four showed a surprised self-consciousness over J.W.'s unexpected
venture into these rather deeper conversational waters than usual, and
there was more surprise when Joe Carbrook began to talk about himself.

He laughed to hide a touch of embarrassment, but with little mirth; and
then he said, "Well, J.W., that's not all foolishness, though I don't
see why you should pick on me. Why not Marty? Of course, I came here for
fun, and I have had some, though not just the sort I expected. And I've
had several jolts too. I might as well admit that if I could just only
see how you hitch all of this League and church business to real life, I
would be for it with all I've got. The trouble is, while I've never been
especially proud of my own record, neither have I seen much excuse yet
for what you 'active members' have been busy with. I have been playing
my way, and you have been playing yours; but it all seems mostly play to
me. All the same, I guess I am getting tired of my kind." If Joe could
ever have spoken wistfully, you might have suspected him of it just
then.

Clearly, thought Marcia Dayne, in the silence that followed, something
big was already happening. But how to help it on she could not tell; so,
with a desperate effort to do the right thing, she contrived to turn the
subject It seemed to her it had become too difficult to go further just
now without peril to Joe's strange new interest, as well as to a very
new and tremulous little hope that had begun to sing in her own heart.

The shift of the talk was a true Institute change, and would have been
most disconcerting to anyone unfamiliar with the ways of young
Christians; but Marcia was sure that what had been said would not be
forgotten, and she knew there would be another t