isible, exhaustless Beneficence is
already provided a lavish abundance of everything which you can possibly
want or think! Nay, desire itself is but God--Good--Love, knocking at
the door of your consciousness. It is impossible for you to desire
anything that is not already your own! It only remains for you to bring
the invisible into visibility--to take of the everlasting substance what
you will!

"And how must you do this? Ask, and _believe that you have_! You have
asked many times, perhaps, and have failed to receive. Why? You have
failed to _believe_. Ask, then, for what you will! Ask, and at once
return thanks for what you have asked! In the asking and _believing_ is
the thing itself made manifest. Declare that it is yours! Expect it!
Believe it! Hold to it without wavering--no matter how empty your hands
may seem! _It is yours_, and God's infinite creation shall lapse into
nothingness; His stars shall fall from high Heaven like withered leaves
sooner than that you shall fail to obtain all that you have asked!"

When, at the close of the lecture, Mrs. B. Isabelle Smart became the
center of a polite yet insistent crush of satins, velvets and
broadcloths, permeated by an aroma of violets and a gentle hum of
delicate flattery, she was aware of a timid hand upon her arm, and
turned to look into the small, eager face under the unfashionable
bonnet.

"You--you meant religious gifts, did you not?" faltered the faint,
discouraged voice; "faith, hope and--and--the--the being resigned to
God's will, and--and endeavoring to bear the cross with patience."

* * * * *

"I meant _everything_ that _you_ want," answered the bright-eyed one
with deliberate emphasis, the bright eyes softening as they took in more
completely the pinched outlines and the eager child's look shining from
out the worn and faded woman's face.

"But--but there is so much! I--I never had anything that I really
wanted--things, you know, that one could hardly mention in one's
prayers."

"Have them now. Have them all. God is all. All is God. You are God's.
God is yours!"

Then the billowing surges of silk and velvet swept the small, inquiring
face into the background with the accustomed ease and relentlessness of
billowing surges.

Having partaken copiously of certain "material beliefs" consisting of
salads and sandwiches, accompanied by divers cups of strong coffee, Mrs.
J. Mortimer Van Deuser had become pleasantly flu