"No; I can't even do that. I haven't said my prayers since this thing came to me. What can I pray about? What can I ask of God?"
"Listen. It is easy to pray when everything is going along nicely, and we are getting everything we ask for; but when we seem to be up against hard fate; when despair is in our hearts and the Lord appears to have deserted us, then it is not so easy; but then is when we need most to pray."
"Yes, yes, brother, true enough; but what's the use?"
"Look here, once before, in your life, you felt as you do now; and you told me yourself that not until you said both in your heart and to God 'Thy will be done' did you get peace. Try it again, brother. There is no darkness but the Light of Christ can penetrate, there is no seeming evil but the Lord can turn to your good. What did Job say of the Lord?"
"I don't know."
"'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' And you are not yet as Job. He lost everything. You have gained a father and a sister. That, certainly, is something."
"Yes, it is; and yet in the finding of these two, I have lost—well—you know—"
"Yes; I know; but the Lord can even make that right. Trust Him, trust Him, always and in everything. That's my motto for life. I can not get along without it."
"Thank you so very much."
They talked for some time, then they went out for a walk.