nd choose rather to starve or die of cold than
ask her forgiveness?"

Amy was silent.

"And if your mother could not bear to see you in want, and were to
come out to you in the cold night with food and kind words, would you
turn away from her and say, 'I know she can never love me, I have been
so naughty;' and would you refuse to receive her kindness, and ask her
forgiveness?"

Amy bent down her head.

"Or would you say," continued Mrs. Mordaunt, "as you saw her coming,
'I will not go to meet her now; I will go and try to earn a few pence,
and then I will come back to her and say, "Mother, I am very sorry,
but here are some pence I have earned. Will you take them and forgive
me, and let me be your child again?"' Would that be _humility_ and
_gratitude_, or _pride_ and _ingratitude_, Amy?"

"Pride and ingratitude," said Amy in a low voice.

"And when the Lord Jesus says to you, 'You have sinned against me and
wronged me, and broken my laws; but I have come down from heaven to
earth to seek you; come back to me, and I will receive and forgive
you,' would it be humility or pride to say, 'Thou canst not forgive
me, I am too sinful; but wait a little while, and I will do something
good, and make myself better, and then I will come back to thee'?"

"_Pride_," said Amy. "But I thought God only loved good children,
ma'am; and I am not good."

"God does only love good children, Amy," said Mrs. Mordaunt very
seriously, "and God knows you cannot be good." Amy looked up in
wonder.

"Who was Jesus Christ, Amy?"

"The Son of God," said Amy.

"And what did he become man and come into this world for?"

Amy answered as she had been taught, "Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners."

"To save whom?"

"Sinners."

"Not those who _thought themselves good_, but those who _knew_ they
had been _sinful_. What did he save them from?"

"From punishment," said Amy thoughtfully.

"Yes," said Mrs. Mordaunt, "from punishment, and from sin. He came to
suffer, that we might be delivered and freely forgiven, and to make us
holy. Did it cost him nothing to do this, Amy?"

"He died for it on the cross," said Amy softly.

"He did indeed. And did he suffer all that pain and anguish of mind
for nothing?"

Amy did not answer.

"It would have been for nothing," said Mrs. Mordaunt, "if we had still
to earn forgiveness for ourselves. Jesus bore the punishment for us
just because we could not have borne it; and he has borne