it so that
we shall never have to bear it now. If, then, you go and _give
yourself up_ to the blessed Saviour as _He calls you to do_, God will
receive you for his sake, as if you had been always a good and
obedient child, and Jesus will give you his Holy Spirit to abide with
you always, and to make you good and obedient and happy."

"I must not wait until I am better for God to love me, then," said Amy
doubtfully.

"Again, do you obey your mother in order to become her child; or do
you obey her because she loves you and is your mother, Amy?"

"Because she is my mother," said Amy.

"And will your obedience make you more her child than you are, Amy?"

"No, ma'am."

"But because you are her child and she loves you, does that make you
careless of obeying her?"

"If I only could be a better child to please her!" said Amy, the tears
gathering in her eyes.

"It is so with God, my child," said Mrs. Mordaunt. "He loves you, not
because you are good, but because he is good--because he is love, and
so loved you that he gave his Son that you might be saved. Before you
can love him, you must believe his word--that he loves you; and
believing he loves you, he will make you good and happy. God has given
the Bible to _tell of his love to you_. Read it, my child; believe
it."

Mrs. Harrison came in just then, and Mrs. Mordaunt, after saying a few
words to her, rose to leave.

That evening Amy took out her Bible with a new interest. "Can it be
possible, indeed," thought she, "that God has written in this book
that he loves me--_me_, a little sinful child! I will look and see."
She read some of the passages she had learned before for Mrs.
Mordaunt: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price" (Isa. lv. 1). "May I, indeed,
come without anything to offer, and will God give me all I want?"
Then: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of man be lifted up: that _whosoever_ believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life" (John iii. 14, 15). "He that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death
unto life" (John v. 24).

"Can I not _now_ hear his words," she thought, "and _do I not_
believe?" She had read the words often before, but now a new light
seemed to stream forth from