APPENDIX W
LITTLE BESSIE WOULD ASSIST PROVIDENCE
(See Chapter cclxxxii)
[It is dull, and I need wholesome excitements and distractions; so I will go lightly excursioning along the primrose path of theology.]
Little Bessie was nearly three years old. She was a good child, and not shallow, not frivolous, but meditative and thoughtful, and much given to thinking out the reasons of things and trying to make them harmonize with results. One day she said:
“Mama, why is there so much pain and sorrow and suffering? What is it all for?”
It was an easy question, and mama had no difficulty in answering it:
“It is for our good, my child. In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us these afflictions to discipline us and make us better.”
“Is it He that sends them?”