Frederick glanced once more over the last letter from his mysterious friend. A smile crept slowly over his lips. Had quaint old Mr. Dogood been a Christian all this time?

The even queerer style of his penmanship made the words seem to hover of the page. The classroom was empty now. Even the Professor had had to leave soon after class. Folding the letter back into his backpack, he walked to the teacher’s desk. It didn’t take many opening and closing of drawers to find an old-fashioned ink-well with a calligraphy pen.

With a grin that comes from the satisfaction of finding one is correct in something, Frederick sat down and took out a pen of his own. “Dear Mr. Dogood,” he wrote.

“I cannot thank you enough for your time and patience, sir. It may be a quaint means of evangelism, but in the end, I was shown the irrationality of my old blind faith.

“The Holy Spirit came to me under the hand of his daughter, a woman named Mary Madeline. We met by chance at the park one day and when she discovered your letters, she helped to explain them. We discussed everything, we went over the Scriptures – I believe she was praying for me. I did not always welcome it – truth be told I was often rather hostile – but she still managed to show me the unchanging truths of our Christian faith.

I can assure you that, God willing, I will never doubt His Word again. The Bible is true; what’s more, God has given us reasons to believe it. ‘The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”’”

He signed it ‘Forever in Christ,’ and he left it on the Professor’s desk.