Then briefly, but pointedly, Mr. Carleton proceeded to illustrate the three steps--redemption through Christ, intimacy with Christ, and identity with him. He closed by quoting the words: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne," and added, "When the disciple has placed himself in complete submission to the will of God, as did our blessed Master, then is this last stage reached--namely, his complete identification with his Lord." From the moment that Mr. Carleton read the Scripture lesson Ray Branford seemed unusually agitated, and before he had finished his remarks great tears were flowing down the boy's cheeks. When, however, he at the close of the meeting hastened to the lad's side with the anxious inquiry: "What is it, Ray? Can I help you?" the boy hastily brushed away his tears, and brusquely replied: "Those were the words my mother repeated when dying." Then he turned, and fled out into the storm and darkness. This, then, was the cause for his great agitation, and with a shade of disappointment apparent on his face, Mr. Carleton turned around to speak with Deacon Blake. "Brother Carleton," said that wise old gentleman, "don't you know that the Lord can go with that boy in all this storm and darkness, and save him, too?" And he did. "Dr. Gasque, what is it to be a Christian?" Ray asked, as he got into that gentleman's buggy, and they rode off together toward the Black Forge Mills. Now it happened that Dr. Gasque, though a very skillful physician, and one who prided himself on his strict morality, was not a Christian. He was not even a church-goer. But he knew Ray's history well, and realized that the boy to ask such a question must be thoroughly in earnest. Under the circumstances, then, he probably did what was the very best thing to do, for he answered: "I don't know." "Well," said the boy, "if there is anything in Christianity at all, ought not a man who is constantly with those who are passing into eternity to know something about it himself, that he might tell others of it?" The question, startling as it was to the doctor, was characteristic of the lad. For some months he had manifested a similar directness in his questions to his teacher, and to Mr. Carleton. A long silence followed, and the lights at the Forge were in sight before the doctor answered; but he at last said: "I suppose he had." "How would you settle such a question?" persisted the boy. There came to the doctor a bright vision of a home among the New Hampshire hills, and a white-haired father and mother praying for their only son, and he answered, huskily: "I should go directly to Christ himself." "Thank you!" Ray said, as he leaped out of the buggy, and hastened home. Going directly to his room, he closed and locked the door. Then he knelt down by his bedside, repeating over and over again the words: "Lord Jesus, take me. Lord Jesus, take me."