He chose for his text in the morning the words found in John 11:6: "When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was." Why God delays in answering our requests was his theme; and he suggested three reasons, each of which found its illustration in the experience of those sisters of Bethany. With a wealth of illustration from the history and experience of God's people that was hardly to be expected from so young a preacher, he developed his theme, speaking also with a simplicity and earnestness that held the undivided attention of his hearers to the close. But it was the evening discourse that made the strongest impression upon the First Church people. An audience larger if anything than that of the morning had gathered. Ray's text was from John 13:8: "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me," and his theme was: "Christ a necessity of humanity." Its need of cleansing, its inability to cleanse itself, and therefore the absolute necessity of its resorting to Jesus Christ, "who taketh away the sin of the world," were the three points he presented with real earnestness, freshness, and power. Ray came down from the pulpit to receive the hearty commendations of many who, previous to this, had never been especially demonstrative toward him. Slowly he made his way to the vestibule to find a number of his old school friends waiting to speak with him. He delayed a few minutes to return their greetings; then he said to Daisy Lawton, who was among them: "Miss Daisy, shall we go now?" She at once took his arm, and they entered the street. His act gave occasion for many significant looks and remarks from those who had witnessed it. "I wonder if they are engaged?" "What a handsome couple?" "And so suited to each other!" passed from lip to lip. Meantime, he and Daisy, utterly unconscious of the train of remarks they had set in motion, were going slowly up the avenue toward the cottage. She was telling him how she had enjoyed _that_ sermon, and with the familiarity of an old friend was suggesting here and there an improvement in the thought and utterance of the young preacher. As he listened to her, there suddenly came over him the consciousness that not only his happiness, but his greatest usefulness depended largely upon that fair girl's walking by his side through life. They had now reached the cottage porch, and turned for a moment to look off toward the hills rising quite abruptly just back of them. Then a sudden resolve came to Ray. He would settle this important question before he returned to Wenton on the morrow. "Daisy," he said, "I have not been upon the hills for several years, and to-morrow, before I return to Wenton, I believe I will go up there. Could you arrange to go with me?"