little girl can remember is taken sick. Some days pass and her mother
with tears streaming down her face tells her little daughter that
grandmother has gone to heaven. The mystery bearing down upon the little
soul deepens. "What is Heaven?" and "where is Heaven?" she asks. They
tell her of its beauties, its peace, happiness and joy. They say that
grandmother wanted to go and then they cry again. The little girl cannot
understand it all, but she tries. If grandmother is happy and really
wanted to go, why does mother look so sad, why the closed blinds, why is
everything so quiet? She asks the question in the presence of her
practical unimaginative aunt, who bids her be quiet and adds in her
even, impressive voice, "Your grandmother is dead." The word has an
awful sound and she raises her eyes to the severe face above her and
asks, "What _is_ dead?" But the aunt does not answer, and the little
girl goes to the window to think it all over. She knows that _dead_ is
dreadful--grandmother has gone, the house is quiet, father will not play
with her and mother cries. She is only a very little girl but she has
met the unanswerable questions, "Who made God? Where did I come from?
Where is Heaven? What is it like? What is Death?"

As the years pass her instructors in religion attempt to teach her. In
varied words, according to varied creeds they answer or postpone the
answer to her questions. She learns that God is good and God is great;
that He takes care of people, at night especially; that one may ask Him
for whatever she wants and if it is best she will get it; that if one
would please God she must be very good and there are many things she
must not do; that those who please Him shall be rewarded and those who
fail shall be punished.

Her instructors do not mean always that this shall be the sum total of
their teachings but stripped of all the songs, the pictures and cards,