ave endeavored to
be loyal to your rules and customs, your aims and ideals, and to the
confidence you have reposed in me. Oh, my dear Sisters and Brothers,
pray for me that I be enabled to see my duty more plainly. It is not the
flesh-pots that will call me back to the world; if I go, it will be
because the duties I have left behind take such shape that they draw me
out of this shelter in spite of myself. I thank you for the help you
have given me these last weeks; God knows my gratitude can never be
spoken in words."

Elder Gray's voice broke the silence that followed Susanna's speech. "I
only echo the sentiments of the Family when I say that our Sister
Susanna shall have such time as she requires before deciding to unite
with this body of Believers. No pressure shall be brought to bear upon
her, and she will be, as she ever has been, a welcome guest under our
roof. She has been an inspiration to the children, a comfort and aid to
the Sisters, an intelligent comrade to the Brethren, and a sincere and
earnest student of the truth. May the Spirit draw her into the Virgin
Church of the New Creation!"

"Yee and amen!" exclaimed Eldress Abby, devoutly: "For thus saith the
Lord of hosts: I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and
the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all
nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the
Lord of hosts."

"O Virgin Church, how great thy light,
What cloud can dim thy way?"

sang Martha from her place at the end of a bench; and all the voices
took up the hymn softly as the company sat with bowed heads.

Then Brother Issachar rose from his corner, saying: "Jesus called upon
his disciples to give up everything: houses, lands, relationships, and
even the selfishness of their own lives. They could not call their lives
their own. '_Lo! we have left all and followed thee_,' said Peter;
'fathers, mothers, wives, children, houses, lands, and even our own
lives also.' It is a great price to pay, but we buy Heaven with it!"

"Yee, we do," said Brother Thomas Scattergood, devoutly. "To him that
overcometh shall the great prize be given."

"God help the weaker brethren!" murmured young Brother Nathan, in so low
a voice that few could hear him.

Moved by the same impulse, Tabitha, Abby, and Martha burst into one of
the most triumphant of the Shaker songs, one that was never sung save
when the meeting was "full of the Spirit":--