the maid, and she kneels with
her two servant princesses, waiting for her own death. Faithful behind
their mistress, they wait with her,--not feebler, but less raised in
thought, as less conceiving their immortal destiny; the one, a gentle
girl, conceiving not in her quiet heart any horror of death, bows her
fair head towards the earth, almost with a smile; the other, fearful
lest her faith should for an instant fail, bursts into passion of prayer
through burning tears. St. Ursula kneels, as daily she knelt, before the
altar, giving herself up to God forever.

And so you see her, here in the days of childhood, and here in her
sacred youth, and here in her perfect womanhood, and here borne to her
grave.

Such creatures as these _have_ lived--do live yet, thank God, in the
faith of Christ.

291. You hear it openly said that this, their faith, was a foolish
dream. Do you choose to find out whether it was or not? You may if you
will, but you can find it out in one way only.

Take the dilemma in perfect simplicity. Either Christianity is true or
not. Let us suppose it first one, then the other, and see what follows.

Let it first be supposed untrue. Then rational investigation will in all
probability discover that untruth; while, on the other hand, irrational
submission to what we are told may lead us into any form of absurdity or
insanity; and, as we read history, we shall find that this insanity has
perverted, as in the Crusades, half the strength of Europe to its ruin,
and been the source of manifold dissension and misery to society.

Start with the supposition that Christianity is untrue, much more with
the desire that it should be, and that is the conclusion at which you
will certainly arrive.

But, on the other hand, let us suppose that it is, or may be, true.
Then, in order to find out whether it is or not, we must attend to what
it says of itself. And its first saying is an order to adopt a certain
line of conduct. _Do_ that first, and you shall know more. Its promise
is of blessing and of teaching, more than tongue can utter, or mind
conceive, if you choose to do this; and it refuses to teach or help you
on any other terms than these.

292. You may think it strange that such a trial is required of you.
Surely the evidences of our future state might have been granted on
other terms--nay, a plain account might have been given, with all
mystery explained away in the clearest language. _Then_, we should have
b