line, repeated Mrs.
Browning's lovely poem:--

"They say that God lives very high!
But if you look above the pines,
You cannot see our God. And why?

"And if you dig down in the mines,
You never see Him in the gold,
Though from Him all that's glory shines.

"God is so good, He wears a fold
Of heaven and earth across His face--
Like secrets kept, for love, untold.

"But still I feel that His embrace
Slides down, by thrills, through all things made,
Through sight and sound of every place:

"As if my tender mother laid
On my shut lids, her kisses' pressure,
Half-waking me at night; and said,
'Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?'"

Beyond question the clergyman had expected a less unusual selection than
this; but he smiled very kindly at the little boy as he said the
beautiful words. At the conclusion he merely said, "You have a good
father, my boy."

"Do you like my new hymn?" the child asked me.

"Yes," I replied. "Did your father tell you what it means?" I added,
suddenly curious.

"No," said my small friend; "I didn't ask him. You see," he
supplemented, "it tells _itself_ what it means!"

The things of religion so often to the children tell themselves what
they mean! Only the other day I heard a little girl recounting to her
young uncle, learned in the higher criticism, the story of the Creation.

"Just only _six days_ it took God to make _everything_" she said; "think
of that!"

"My dear child," remonstrated her uncle, "_that_ isn't the point at all
--the _amount_ of time it required! As a matter of fact, it took
thousands of years to make the world. The word 'day' in that connection
means a certain period of time, not twenty-four hours."

"Oh!" cried the little girl, in disappointment; "that takes the
wonderfulness out of it!"

"Not at all," protested her young uncle. "And, supposing it did, can you
not see that the world could not have been made in six of _our_ days?"

"Why," said the child, in surprise, "I should think it could have been!"

"For what reason?" her uncle asked, in equal amazement.

"Because God was doing it!" the child exclaimed.

Her uncle did not at once reply. When he did, it was to say, "You are
right about _that_, my dear."

Sometimes it happens that a child finds in our careful explanation of
the meaning of a religious belief or practice a different or a further
significance than we have indicated. I once had an especially striking
experience