"Yes, a kingdom that has been growing and gaining in power for nineteen hundred years. I mean the Kingdom of God, that Christ preached and founded."
"Jack thinks a good deal of Jesus," the boy remarked musingly. "I think he loves Him better, yes, better than you."
"I hope—I believe he does!"
"Why, I wonder?"
"I could not be to Jack what his Saviour is. It is Jesus who helps him to be patient under suffering, who teaches him to bear his pain with resignation. And, Theodore, when my darling boy is called away from me, I shall not be able to go with him, but there is One—the great Physician—who will be with him when he passes through the valley of the shadow of death."
Mrs. Barton paused, and Theodore impulsively caught her hand.
"Why do you talk so?" he cried passionately. "How can you? how can you? I cannot bear to think of Jack's dying. He is better, isn't he?"
"Yes, certainly he is better."
"Then why—why—"
The child's voice was choked with piteous sobs that he strove manfully to subdue.