"Please, dear husband, observe these rules and study every assertion as carefully as though you were in the class. You, and Grace, and Kate, can accomplish a great deal together; but by all means don't pass judgment till you have carefully examined all the evidence. "Tell me all about the children. Such details will greatly comfort me, for I must confess that to-night I am the least bit homesick. "Good night, "Your loving MARION." CHAPTER XVI. "God is commanding us off, every hour of our lives, toward things eternal, there to find our good, and build our rest. Sometimes He does it by taking us out of the world, and sometimes by taking the world out of us."--_H. Bushnell._ "The second letter has come," said Grace the moment Kate entered the room, after her day's lessons were over. "Has it? Let us hurry and get the tea over so we can study it." "Don't you want to hear it first? I haven't looked at it because I wanted to wait for you, but I can't wait that long," cried Grace, pulling it out of her painting-apron pocket. "All right, then read away while I start the fire." "No; come and sit down like a good child, you can't half listen when your mind is filled with stoves and tea-pots." Kate smiled, and drawing her chair up beside Grace, she listened to the reading, while her face alternately brightened or darkened. "Well, it sounds very beautiful and very plausible, but I can't see how any one can say there is no evil when the world is full of it, and to say there is no sin, sickness or death! why, that is blasphemous! I know the Bible won't corroborate that," she said, in a horrified voice, at the conclusion of the letter. "Hold on, we must not be so fast; there are good reasons for every statement, and she says it is necessary to say these denials over and over. It is harder for me to believe there is no matter, but if there is a way to prove there is none, then I will submit. But first let us see what the Bible says," said the more moderate Grace. She got the Bible and concordance, but could find no reference to matter as pertaining to physical creation, but she found under the word "flesh" an allusion to John i: 12-13, and iii: 6. "The first reads," began Grace, "'But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' That evidently refers to a creation possible to all, but where is the authority for saying 'there is no matter'?" She pondered a moment, then referred to the letter--"Oh, I see! She says, 'no _reality_ in matter,' and then goes on to explain about the real. Yes, now I see. Do you understand it, Kate?" "I can understand that the body is not the real," replied Kate, thoughtfully, "for Jesus said 'the spirit is all, the flesh profiteth nothing,' but--"