powered with the evidence; but the soul, the heart, and
the spirit, would miss the true knowledge that comes through purity,
faith, and waiting upon God--the deepest knowledge of all. Besides,
though one were to rise from the dead, and come to men with the awe of
the vision of the other world stamped on his face, they would not
believe. The evidence of the unseen and eternal must be given, not to
the startled physical sense, but to the soul. Some other deeper method
must be adopted; the heart must be taught to wait, trust, and accept
those deep intuitions and revelations which establish the being of God.

(2) _The Answer was Mysterious_. Surely, if He were able to do so
much, He could do more. The power that healed the sick and lame and
blind, and cast out demons, could surely deliver John. It made his
heart the more wistful, to hear of these displays of power. He had to
learn that the Lord healed these poor folks so easily because the light
soil of their nature could not bear the richer harvests; because their
soul could not stand the cutting through which alone the brilliant
facets which were possible to his could be secured. It was because
John was a royal soul, the greatest of woman born, because his nature
was capable of yielding the best results to the Divine culture, that he
was kept waiting, whilst others caught up the blessing and went away
healed. Only three months remained of life, and in these the
discipline of patience and doubt must do their perfect work.

That is where you have made a mistake. You have thought God was hard
on you, that He would help everybody but you; but you have not
understood that your nature was so dear to God, and so precious in his
sight, and so capable of the greatest development, that God loved you
too much to let you off so lightly, and give you what you wanted, and
send you on your way. God could have given you sight, made that lame
foot well, restored the child to health, and opened the iron prison
door of your circumstances. _He could_; but for all eternity you will
thank Him He did not, because you are capable of something else. We
are kept waiting through the long years--not that He loves us less, but
more; not that He refuses what we ask, but that in the long strain and
tension He is making us partakers of his blessedness. John's nature
would presently yield a martyr and win a martyr's crown: was not that
reason enough for not giving him at once the deliveranc