In reply to Edwin's questions on prayer and what it means to be converted, Mrs. Miller explained that she had gone forward and given her hand to the minister a long time before and that after waiting a year's time he had told her she was in the church, and that joining church was what was meant by being converted. "What do you mean by 'church'?" Edwin asked, feeling that he had found another word bearing upon the great subject that was perplexing him. "Why the church is that big building down on the first four corners as you go into town. You can't miss it, for it's the only building there, and if you want to go down there with us some time to a meeting, you can. We have meeting, you know, every Sunday at the church." But Edwin did not know, so he said, "Do you mean that you have prayer-meeting every Sunday?" "Oh, no," she answered; "it isn't a prayer-meeting. We just get together and listen to the minister talk, but we always sing, and the minister prays for us." "And don't you know, because you go to that church, that you will go to heaven when you die?" Edwin said in astonishment, but the answer was, "Oh, no; we don't really know anything about that." As Edwin pondered over the matter that night when alone, he said, "If it took Mrs. Miller a whole year to get into the church, it will take me that long to get converted; but I can't see why she doesn't know any more than she does about getting to heaven." Although Edwin could get no understanding in regard to the deep things that were upon his mind, he never for one moment thought of giving up in his efforts to search for them and to find out. In his heart he was still sure that there was a way to know these things, and although his friends had failed to discover them, his confidence in their sincerity was not in the least shaken. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3: 9). CHAPTER XV A STAR OF HOPE Come then, O care! O grief! O woe! O troubles! mighty in your kind; I have a balm ye ne'er can know, A hopeful mind. --Vane. During the weeks that followed, Edwin was very busy, but most of the time that he was at work about the chores or in the harvest-field where the men were gathering in the ripened grain or preparing for the threshers, he was reviewing in his mind the scene on eternity, the talks with Frank, the prayer-meeting, and what Mrs. Miller had told him in regard to the church.