of broken ties, if
need be, for His kingdom's sake. "_If any man cometh unto Me, and,
hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My
disciple_."

Texts that Hubert had passed lightly before were now illuminated with
meaning and power as the occasion rose for them to be translated into
life. He found a rare sweetness of comfort in those which assured him
that he need not fear he was out of the path of the Saviour's
footprints, though he found them blood-marked or washed with many
tears. He turned to some familiar words which he wished to see before
him again in plain black and white. They were found toward the end of
the ninth chapter of Luke.

"Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father," said one in response
to his Lord's "follow me." And said Jesus, "_Let the dead bury their
dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God_."

"Let the dead bury their dead!" What a strange expression, and what
could it mean! Hubert pondered the text, no longer in keen agony of
mind, for his distress had lightened as he saw even on the painful way
the light of God's will shining. Anything could be borne, if the face
of the Lord still shone upon it!

"What does it mean?" he queried in deep meditation.

Slowly a meaning, not the full one, doubtless, but suited to his need,
dawned upon him. Let the spiritually dead attend to the affairs of
death. Let them follow the conventional, natural round, and answer
always to the cries of human love and longing. Let them keep to
earthly ties and earthly work. But let the living be about the affairs
of life! A ministry waits that only living hands can serve. Let
filial hearts render unto earthly love that which is due, but see that
_thou_, child of God, render also unto God the things which are God's.

"There are a thousand things," thought Hubert, "that unregenerated men
can do quite as well as any. Indeed, they have an affinity with
earthly things that is lacking in the heaven-born man. To trade in
iron and amass wealth does not require a living man. I will let others
do it. The supreme business of my Father calls, and I must be about
it. But my earthly father? Shall I wait first to bury him? The Lord
says, No."

Hubert studied his pattern in His life as well as words.

"He was subject to His parents," he reflected, "until the time came for
His ministry and He had reached mature