Life is still very desolate without him; but she believes that he lives and knows, that he is growing and going on--that he remembers her and loves her as never before, that he is waiting for her, perhaps watching over her as in his days on earth, even though he cannot write home. And trustfully, gratefully she remembers him in her prayers. She thinks that the Heavenly Father is not likely to forget what a mother says to Him about her son. * * * * * This book is a poor, imperfect attempt to put together some of the teachings of our holy religion, to help a troubled world, in this day of its necessity, "to look out over the wall." [1] John iii. 2. PART I The Near Hereafter CHAPTER I "I" The title of this chapter is a very short one. It consists of but a single word, and that the shortest word in the whole English language. And though it is the shortest word, yet it is the most wonderful and mysterious word. Though it is a word that every one of us has on his lips every moment of the day, yet no one who reads this book--no one in the whole world--has ever been able to understand what it means. Just the letter "I."--All day long, from morning till night, we are using it:--I did this. I mean to do that. I ought. I shall. I will. I think. I wish. I love. I hate. I remember. I forget. And so on and on--ever ringing the changes on this little word in all its cases "I" and "my" and "mine" and "me." I want to set you thinking. Who or what is this "I," this "me"? Perhaps you will say, "Oh, there is nothing mysterious about it--I know very well what I mean by it. 'I' means myself." But what do I mean by Myself? Of course there is a rough work-day meaning in which it means my whole being as I stand--clothes, body, brains, thoughts, feelings, general appearance, everything. But every thinking man knows that this is not the real "I," that when he says I can, I do, I will, I ought, I remember, the "I" means to him something much deeper and more mysterious than that. Ask yourself, each one, what do you mean by "I"? § 1