“Go on; tell me all.”

“Do you know, I was tempted to ‘chuck it all’ after I had failed with Julia.  I even went so far as to play devilishly near to sin, but thank the Lord, I came to my senses before I was overcome, and I escaped that horror.  Oh, but I was storm-tossed for a while—­I thought of it yesterday when we had the rough sea—­but in time I came out into the calm again, just as we are coming today on this voyage.  But not until I had said more than once ‘not my will, but thine, O Lord, be done,’ and said it from my heart, did I get peace.  Then I began to see that the girl had come into my life, not to be my wife, but to turn my life into new channels.  I, with the rest of the world of which I was a part, had no definite views or high ideals of life, death, ’and that vast forever;’ and something was needed to change my easy-going course.  When I realized that Julia Elston had been the instrument of the Lord in doing that, I had to put away resentment and acknowledge the hand of God in it.  I read in the parables of our Lord that a certain merchantman had to sell all he had in order to get the purchase money to buy the Pearl of Great Price.  Why should it be given me without cost?”

“We all have to pay for it.”

“And I who had made no sacrifice, railed against fate because I had been asked to pay a trifle—­no it was not a trifle; but I have paid, and hope to continue to pay to the last call.  Now, what do you say, brother?  Tell me what you think.”

“Well, you have an interesting story, my brother, and I am glad you look on your experiences in the right light.  To get the woman one thinks he ought to get, is, after all, not the whole of life.  There are other blessings.  To have one’s life changed from darkness into light; to have one’s journey turned from a downward course to one of eternal exaltation; to obtain a knowledge of the plan of salvation,—­these are important.  If one is on the right way, and keeps on that way to the end, He who rules the world and the destinies of men, will see to it that all is right.  Sometime, somewhere, every man and every woman will come to his own, whether in life or death, in this world, or the next.”

“Thank you for saying that.  Do you know, I am now glad that Julia did not yield to my entreaties, and marry me out of pity.  Think how I would have felt when the realization of that had come to me. * * * * I found this expression of Stevenson the other day, purporting to be a test of a man’s fortitude and delicacy:  ’To renounce where that shall be necessary, and not to be embittered.’  Thank the Lord, I am not embittered.  Some time ago I chose this declaration of Paul for my motto:  ’But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’”

The light of a soul of peace shone from the countenance of the young man.  The smile on the lips added only beauty to the strength of the face.  He arose, shook himself as if to get rid of all past unpleasantness and weakness, and faced the east as though he were meeting the world with new power.  Then the smile changed to a merry laugh as he ran to the railing and cried: