ipleship.

* * * * * *

The next morning dawned murky and cool. A thin, struggling rain beat
against the windows of Hubert's room when he woke. Things look
different by the cold light of day, especially if the day be rainy,
from the same things seen by gaslight. With Hubert's instant memory of
the night before, came the temptation to dismiss its happenings as a
dream and go back to his former way of living. But he could not do so
in honesty. He had made a pledge to a supposed Being, whom he must now
treat as a reality until the most honest experiment proved Him not to
he, or to be inaccessible. Clearly a line of procedure formed itself
in his mind. He must seek to know those laws, or principles, that
governed the new realm which he sought to enter, and endeavor to adjust
himself to them.

So he took from its place on the shelves the Book that was most likely
of all to give the suggestions he needed, because it dealt specifically
with the matter in hand. Of all those who bore witness in the Book the
most remarkable one was Jesus Christ. So he turned to the New
Testament, and to the Gospels. He was none too familiar with their
teachings, but he believed that of them all the Gospel of John
contained the fullest statement of abstract principles. He would read
it.

It was still early, and he settled himself for an hour's study. It
occurred to him to invoke afresh that One whom he was seeking for light
upon His own law. An impulse of pride almost deterred him, but he
thought,

"If He is, and I am His creature, I can afford to be humble. Indeed,
it is the only fitting thing."

So he bowed his head and said:

"O God, I am seeking Thee. Help me to understand the truth."

He found the Gospel of John, and began at the beginning. He read the
sublime statements concerning the Word, and wondered if they were true.
If true, it was the most wonderful fact in the world. If untrue--oh,
what darkness lay in the shadow of so great light's negation! He read
the twelfth verse, and the thirteenth, and pondered them in the light
of the foregoing statement. If they were true, then He who was "with
God," who "was God"--he paused to consider the mysterious relationship;
mysterious, yet not thereby incredible; he would not repeat the folly
of the gardener by too ready unbelief! If true, then God, that eternal
Word, came down to man, and "as many as received Him," to them it was
granted to bec