heard my prayer.  I do not know when it will be; perhaps you will still be undecided when you sit in our room and read these words.  Oh, I hope, I hope you will not waste two years more of your life, but if you do, if as you read these last lines that I shall ever write, the question is unsettled, I charge you by the memory of your sister, by the love you bear her not to wait another moment—­not one.  Oh, my darling, let me beg this at your hands; take it as my dying petition—­renewed after two years of waiting.  Come to Jesus now.

“That question settled, then let me give you one word of warning.  Do not live as I have done—­my life has been a failure—­five years of stupid sleep, while the enemy waked and worked.  Oh, God, forgive me!  Sadie, never let that be your record.  Let me give you a motto—­’Press toward the mark.’  The mark is high; don’t look away from or forget it, as I did; don’t be content with simply sauntering along, looking toward it now and then, but take in the full meaning of that earnest sentence, and live it—­’Press toward the mark!’

“And now good-by.  When you have finished reading this letter, do this last thing for me:  If you are already a Christian, get down on your knees and renew your covenant; resolve anew to live and work, and suffer and die, for Christ.  If you are not a Christian—­Oh, I put my whole soul into this last request—­I beg you kneel and give yourself up to Jesus.  My darling, good-by until we meet in heaven.

“ESTER RIED.”

The letter dropped from Sadie’s nerveless fingers.  She arose softly, and turned down the gas, and raised the shade—­the moonlight still gleamed on the marble slab.  Dr. Van Anden came with quick, firm tread up the street.  She gave a little start as she recognized the step, and her thoughts went out after that other lonely Doctor, who was to have been her brother, and then back to the long, earnest letter and the words, “I give him up”—­and she realized as only those can who know by experience, what a giving up that would be, how much her sister longed for her soul.  And then, moved by a strong, firm resolve, Sadie knelt in the solemn moonlight, and the long, long struggle was ended.  Father and sister were in heaven, but on earth, this night, their prayers were being answered.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:  Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.”

THE END.