nd help him to cast out his. Perhaps he
won't be there; perhaps he does n't want me, though when he was his
very best self he loved me dearly; but that was long, long ago!" sighed
Susanna, drearily.

"Oh, this thing the world's people call love!" groaned Abby.

"There is love and love, even in the world outside; for if it is Adam's
world it is God's, too, Abby! The love I gave my husband was good, I
think, but it failed somewhere, and I am going back to try again. I am
not any too happy in leaving you and taking up, perhaps, heavier burdens
than those from which I escaped."

"Night after night I've prayed to be the means of leading you to the
celestial life," said the Eldress, "but my plaint was not worthy to
be heard. Oh, that God would increase our numbers and so revive our
drooping faith! We work, we struggle, we sacrifice, we pray, we defy the
world and deny the flesh, yet we fail to gather in Believers."

"Don't say you 've failed, dear, dear Abby!" cried Susanna, pressing
the Eldress's work-stained hands to her lips. "God speaks to you in one
voice, to me in another. Does it matter so much as long as we both hear
Him? Surely it's the hearing and the obeying that counts most! Wish me
well, dear friend, and help me to say goodbye to the Elder."

The two women found Elder Gray in the office, and Abby, still
unresigned, laid Susanna's case before him.

"The Great Architect has need of many kinds of workmen in His building,"
said the Elder. "There are those who are willing to put aside the ties
of flesh for the kingdom of heaven's sake; 'he that is able to receive
it, let him receive it!'"

"There may also he those who are willing to take up the ties of the
flesh for the kingdom of heaven's sake," answered Susanna, gently, but
with a certain courage.

Her face glowed with emotion, her eyes shone, her lips were parted. It
was a new thought. Abby and Daniel gazed at her for a moment without
speaking, then Daniel said: "It's a terrible cross to some of the
Brethren and Sisters to live here outside of the world, but maybe it's
more of a cross for such as you to live in it, under such conditions as
have surrounded you of late years. To pursue good and resist evil, to
bear your cross cheerfully and to grow in grace and knowledge of truth
while you're bearing it that's the lesson of life, I suppose. If you
find you can't learn it outside, come back to us, Susanna."

"I will," she promised, "and no words can speak my