'Hilda, I can't face death. I am not prepared for it.'
I did not answer for a minute, then I said,—
'God has been very good in saving you from that, hasn't He?'
'But I have been on the brink of it, child, and I can't forget it. It has made me see things so differently—my wasted life, and my self-will and self-pleasing, my rejection of so much Bible truth that was distasteful to me. I have thought and thought over these things till I wonder I did not go crazy. It was that that made me send for you. I felt you were the only one that could help me.'
'I am afraid I have not been able to do much,' I responded. 'You have been too ill to talk to, but I have been praying for you.'
'You said one verse to me soon after you came that has been ringing in my head ever since. Wasn't it something like this, "There is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins"?'
'Yes,' I replied; 'but those are bits of verses you have put together. I repeated both of them to you.'
I took my Bible and read them to her again, then she said,—
'Now then, take those verses as your text, and give me a little discourse on them, just as you do to your little Sunday scholars.'
I hesitated. Never had I been asked to do anything that seemed as difficult as this. Yet I dared not refuse such an opportunity, and, with an earnest prayer for the Holy Spirit's guidance, I began, falteringly enough at first, to talk about it. I do not remember now what I said; I was only conscious at the time of Miss Rayner's earnest gaze, and of a longing desire that she might obtain both pardon and peace.