Before three minutes had passed Miss Philura Rice had forgotten that such things as shabby gloves, ill-fitting gowns, unbecoming bonnets and superfluous birthdays existed. In ten minutes more she was leaning forward in breathless attention, the faded eyes aglow, the unbecoming bonnet pushed back from a face more wistful than ever, but flushed with a joyful excitement. * * * * * "This unseen Good hems us about on every side," the speaker was saying, with a comprehensive sweep of her capable-looking hands. "It presses upon us, more limitless, more inexhaustible, more free than the air that we breathe! Out of it _every_ need, _every_ want, _every_ yearning of humanity can be, must be, supplied. To you, who have hitherto led starved lives, hungering, longing for the good things which you believe a distant and indifferent God has denied you--to you I declare that in this encircling, ever-present, invisible, exhaustless Beneficence is already provided a lavish abundance of everything which you can possibly want or think! Nay, desire itself is but God--Good--Love, knocking at the door of your consciousness. It is impossible for you to desire anything that is not already your own! It only remains for you to bring the invisible into visibility--to take of the everlasting substance what you will! "And how must you do this? Ask, and _believe that you have_! You have asked many times, perhaps, and have failed to receive. Why? You have failed to _believe_. Ask, then, for what you will! Ask, and at once return thanks for what you have asked! In the asking and _believing_ is the thing itself made manifest. Declare that it is yours! Expect it! Believe it! Hold to it without wavering--no matter how empty your hands may seem! _It is yours_, and God's infinite creation shall lapse into nothingness; His stars shall fall from high Heaven like withered leaves sooner than that you shall fail to obtain all that you have asked!" When, at the close of the lecture, Mrs. B. Isabelle Smart became the center of a polite yet insistent crush of satins, velvets and broadcloths, permeated by an aroma of violets and a gentle hum of delicate flattery, she was aware of a timid hand upon her arm, and turned to look into the small, eager face under the unfashionable bonnet. "You--you meant religious gifts, did you not?" faltered the faint, discouraged voice; "faith, hope and--and--the--the being resigned to God's will, and--and endeavoring to bear the cross with patience." * * * * * "I meant _everything_ that _you_ want," answered the bright-eyed one with deliberate emphasis, the bright eyes softening as they took in more completely the pinched outlines and the eager child's look shining from out the worn and faded woman's face. "But--but there is so much! I--I never had anything that I really wanted--things, you know, that one could hardly mention in one's prayers."