"Would you then advise that we should do nothing for him, and leave him
entirely in the hands of God?" asked Phil, with an uncomfortable feeling
of surprise.

"By no means," replied the missionary. "I only combat your idea that no
good can be done to him if he is left in his present circumstances. But
we are bound to use every influence we can bring to bear in his behalf,
and we must pray that success may be granted to our efforts to bring him
to the Saviour. Means must be used as if means could accomplish all,
but means must not be depended on, for `it is God who giveth us the
victory.' The most appropriate and powerful means applied in the wisest
manner to your friend would be utterly ineffective unless the Holy
Spirit gave him a receptive heart. This is one of the most difficult
lessons that you and I and all men have to learn, Phil--that God must be
all in all, and man nothing whatever but a willing instrument. Even
that mysterious willingness is not of ourselves, for `it is God who
maketh us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.' `Without me,'
says Jesus, `ye can do nothing.' A rejecter of Jesus, therefore, is
helpless for good, yet responsible."

"That is hard to understand," said Phil, with a perplexed look.

"The reverse of it is harder to understand, as you will find if you
choose to take the trouble to think it out," replied the missionary.

Phil Maylands did take the trouble to think it out. One prominent trait
in his character was an intense reverence for truth--any truth, every
truth--a strong tendency to distinguish between truth and error in all
things that chanced to come under his observation, but especially in
those things which his mother had taught him, from earliest infancy, to
regard as the most important of all.

Many a passer-by did Phil jostle on his way to the Post-Office that day,
after his visit to the missionary, for it was the first time that his
mind had been turned, earnestly at least, to the subject of God's
sovereignty and man's responsibility.

"Too deep by far for boys," we hear some reader mutter. And yet that
same reader, perchance, teaches her little ones to consider the great
fact that God is One in Three!

No truth is too deep for boys and girls to consider, if they only
approach it in a teachable, reverent spirit, and are brought to it by
their teacher in a prayerful spirit. But fear not, reader. We do not
mean to inflict on you a dissertation on the my