"O Walter! You who know so well what is right, can you, in the face of such words, still nourish hatred!"
"Nelly, I have no more power to love that boy than I have to move the cliffs into the sea!" exclaimed Walter.
"Ask for power—ask in faith; remember the Lord's promise, 'By faith ye shall remove mountains,'—'All things are possible to him that believeth.' O Walter!" continued Nelly, speaking rapidly and earnestly, till the blood rose to her pallid cheek, "this is not a work to be set aside or delayed; remember that until you forgive you cannot be forgiven, that as long as you live in hate, you are living in danger, that your very prayer is turned against yourself when you say, 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us!'"
Walter leaned his brow upon his hand, and remained for some moments buried in thought; then raising his head he said, "I believe that I might like Ned Goldie better if you and your father liked him less; but to see you welcome and speak kindly to one who does not even pretend to be religious, who is thoughtless, worldly, vain—"
"O Walter! Only think how he has been brought up! How could you expect him to be otherwise!"
"He is certainly likely to learn little good at home."
"And would you have us drive him away when he comes in a spirit of kindliness to the house of a man like my father, whose words and example may, by little and little, draw him to better things."
"Perhaps you are right, Nelly," said Walter, with a sigh, "and I have not acted the part of a Christian in either feeling or speaking as I have done. When I recall what I myself was—what I am still—I take shame for my own harsh, uncharitable spirit. I will ask for help from above, to struggle against this besetting sin."
"And pray for him too!" said Nelly earnestly. "We never are sure that we have forgiven our enemies till we are able heartily to pray for them."
"I will," answered Walter with an effort.