is a change, but I hardly know whether to say the change is for better
or worse. I hope it is for the best; it may be that the medicine has
just taken effect."

"God grant that this may be so," reverently said the mother. They were
both silent for some time, then the pastor said, "I never heard Walter
speak as he did this noon. I wonder how he thought of such an absurd
thing, as sending me to jail because some one else stole some chickens."

"I know, James, that it does seem absurd at first thought, yet it seems
to me to be just as sensible to punish the wrong person for stealing,
as it would be to punish the innocent with sickness because some one
else had sinned. I have been thinking seriously of this all the
afternoon, but have not arrived at a satisfactory conclusion," said
Mrs. Williams.

The pastor slowly turned toward his wife and said, "Lillian I am
astonished beyond measure to hear this from you; it was bad enough to
hear it from my own son, but to hear it from you is worse. Don't you
think that Almighty God knows what is best for us, do you dare question
anything He does? Do you think the allwise Creator would have made him
sick if it were not for the best?"

"James, do you really believe God made our boy sick?"

"It must be so," answered James, "for we read in the Bible, that God
made everything that was made."

"If this be true James, it would be a sin to give him medicine, for
we would be trying to undo the work of God."