So the eight years had passed by, full of heartache and anxiety, but of growing interest in others and of wider usefulness. It was the birthday of Ethel-thirteen years since she came to their home and eight years since she had disappeared. Mr. Warren never went to the store and Mrs. Warren never received any company on these recurring days. Together they would go over the five years of her life, recalling the little words and cunning deeds of their darling, and then sit in silence, and each knew that the other was wondering with breaking heart where she was.

On this thirteenth birthday they had sat in thought a long time, when Mrs. Warren spoke.

"James, do you remember how at first we wondered how a good God could bring such a sorrow upon us? I have been thinking that God never brought this after all, for He is good and is not the author of evil."

"I have been thinking that, too, this last year," replied Mr. Warren. "I believe that those teach wrongly who say that God, except in a permissive sense, causes the woes

and wrongs and losses of life. It was this false thought that during the first years after Ethel went almost made me lose confidence in God."

"Last night as I was thinking of this," she continued, "it came over me all at once what a change had come into our lives for good. We were taking no thought of any one except ourselves and Ethel, and the thought came to me with a shock that life was more to me now than it was when Ethel was here."

"That was what I was reading last week in the Scriptures," said Mr. Warren. "That verse, 'All things work together for good to them that love God' was quoted by the pastor two Sundays ago, and it never impressed me as it did then. I came home and read and reread it. It seems to me to mean that God overrules all experiences for the good of those who trust him."

"Certainly He has been doing it for us, James, for step by step He has led us out into larger trust and usefulness."

"And with us, dear, He deepened our affection for Ethel into real love for her and others. I fear, if she had not been taken

we would have gone on training her in selfishness."

"But do you think the 'all things' includes Ethel, James?"

"Yes, I feel so, while I cannot see how. I have felt of late that she is safe in God's almighty arms, and it has been a wonderful comfort to me."

As they had been talking, night had been letting down down her her sable curtains around the earth. The sky was heavy as if for storm and the wind soughed through the trees and around the house. They arose and in silence walked out into the garden. Soon the clouds vanished and the wind fell asleep and the glorious stars looked down upon a quiet, peaceful earth.

The

Mr. Warren at last broke the silence. "How like our life is this night! Down around us fell the blackest darkness. sighing of dreary winds was the only noise that broke our loneliness. But little by little the clouds have vanished and trust and hope, the infinite stars of God, have come out. The night of loss is still our world, but the light of God has flooded it with glory."

A Struggle.

Therewith they gan, both furious and fell,
To thunder blowes, and fiercely to assaile

Each other, bent his enemy to quell,

That with their force the perst both plate and maile, And made wide furrows in their fleshes fraile,

That it would pity any living eie,

Large floods of blood adowne their sides did raile,
But floods of blood could not them satisfie:

Both hungered after death; both chose to win or die.

-Spenser.