In the United States of America there lived, some time ago, a general in the army. The whole country knew that this man was an atheist, or one who does not believe in God or in the life to come.

His wife was a good Catholic. She tried to bring up their daughter, their only child, in the Catholic faith. And by the grace of God, this girl remained firm in the Faith, even though her unfortunate father tried to lead her to be an atheist like him.

For years, the general stubbornly clung to his atheism, despite all the prayers offered by his wife and daughter for him.

But the day finally came that changed his life forever.

His good daughter became very ill, and lay in danger of death. The general loved her with intense affection; he was at her bedside continually, near to her as often as he could be. For everyone could see that she was slowly but surely approaching her end.

One day as he sat beside her, holding her hands in his and tenderly caressing her, she looked at him and said,

"O my dearest father, you see I am now at the point of death, and I must soon leave you. You have often told me that there is no God, and no Heaven after this life. And my dear mother has taught me that there is a God, Who will reward us, and make us eternally happy in the next life, in His own home above, if we adore and serve Him here on earth. Tell me now, my own dear father, whether I am to believe her or you?"

In her heart, she knew what to believe. But she said this in order to bring her father to see the truth.

When she asked him that vital question, the general sat motionless, as if struck by lightning. For some moments he did not answer.

Despite what he had said all those years, he knew in his heart that none of it was true. And now, he did not want to tell his dying child something that he knew to be false.

But at the same time, he did not want to acknowledge the existence of God in the presence of his fellow atheists, some of whom were in the room at the time.

The struggle within him was only for a few moments. He looked on his darling child, and his eyes met hers. In an instant he exclaimed: "O my child, do not listen to my words; believe only what your mother has taught you."

Those in the room looked at him in amazement.

"Surely, General," they said to him, "you do not really mean what you have just now said."

He turned towards them. Pointing to his dying child, he answered them, with a thrill of emotion in his voice - a tone that reached the depths of their hearts:

"My friends, it is indeed more convenient to live according to what we had pretended to believe, but at the hour of death, it is only the ancient faith in the existence of the one true God that will give us consolation."

And so in death, that good girl received the reward of her faithful life: grace was won at last, and from that time on, her dear father lived and died an excellent Catholic.