orgive, the sin of having their own creed
and their own thoughts and their own ways.

Toyner was not a preacher. It was not in him to try to change the ideas
of those who were doing well with what ideas they had. All that he
desired was to live so that it might be known that his God was the God
of the whole wide round of human activity, a God who blessed the just
and the unjust. Toyner desired to be constantly blessing both the bad
and the good with the blessing of love and home which had been given to
him. It was inevitable that to carry out such an idea a man must live
through many mistakes and much failure. The ideal itself was an offence
to society. We have all heard of such offences and how they have been
punished.

One great factor in the refining of Ann's life was her lover's long
neglect; for he, in the simple belief that she must know his heart and
purpose and that she would not be much benefited by his companionship,
left her for those years that passed before he married her wholly
ignorant of his constancy. Ann was constant. Had he explained himself
she would have been content and taken him more or less at his own
valuation, as we all take those who talk about themselves. Having no
such explanation to listen to, she watched and pondered all that he did.
Before the day came in which he made his shy and hesitating offer of
marriage, she had grown to be one with him in hope and desire. Together
they made their mistakes and lived down their failure. They had other
troubles too, for the babies lived and died one by one.

There is seen to be a marvellous alchemy in true piety. Mind and sense
subject to its process become refined. Where refinement is not the
result, we may believe that there is a false note in the devotion, that
there is self-seeking in the effort toward God. Toyner's wealth grew
with the spread of the town over the land he owned. He had the good
taste to spend well the money he devoted to pleasure; yet it was not
books or pictures or music, acquired late in life, that gave to him and
to his wife the power to grow in harmony with their surroundings. It was
the high life of prayer and effort that they lived that made it possible
for God--the God of art as truly as the God of prayer--to teach them.

It is not at the best a cultured place, this backwoods town. There was
many a slip in grammar, many a broad uncouth accent, heard daily in
Ann's drawing-room; but what mental life the town had came to c