hat I
forgot I was putting the gulf of perdition between us. Rather than
submit to separation in this world, than have him raised by them, to
turn away from his mother as a thing too vile to wear his father's
name, I lost him for ever and ever! My son, my star-eyed darling."

"Listen to me. You loved him so tenderly, that no matter how wilful or
disobedient he might have been, you forgave him every offence; and when
he sobbed on your bosom, you felt he was doubly dear, and hugged him
closer to your heart? Even stronger and deeper is God's love for us.
Dare you call yourself more pitiful, more tender than your Father in
heaven, who gave you the capacity to love your child, because He so
compassionately loves His children? We sin, we go far astray, we think
mercy is exhausted, and the door shut against us; but when we truly
repent and go back, and kneel, and pray to be forgiven, Christ Himself
unbars the door and leads us in; and our Father, loving those whom He
created, pardons all; and only requires that we sin no more. God does
not follow us; we must humbly go back all the distance we have put
between us by our wickedness; but the heavens will fall before He fails
to keep His promise to forgive, when we do genuinely repent of our
wrongdoing."

"It is easy for the good to believe that. You are innocent of any
crime, and you are punished for other people's sins, not for your own;
so you can't understand how I dread the thought of God, because I know
the blackness of my heart, when, to get my revenge, I sold my soul to
Satan. Oh! the horror of feeling that I can't undo the bargain; that
pay-day has come! I had the vengeance, I snatched out of God's hands,
and for a while I gloated over it; but now the awful price! My little
one in heaven with the angels; knowing that his mother is a
devil--eternally."

Her head had fallen upon her knees, and in the frenzy of despair she
rocked to and fro.

"Don't you remember that the most sinful woman Christ met on earth, was
the one of all others that He first revealed Himself to, when He came
out of the grave? Because she was so nearly lost, and He had forgiven
so much, in order to save her, her purified heart was doubly dear, and
he honored her more than the disciples, who had escaped the depth of
her wickedness. Try to find comfort in the belief, that if sincere
remorse and contrition redeemed the soul of Mary Magdalen, the same
Savior who pitied and pardoned her will not deny y