We did as she desired, and seating herself beside Charlotte, Susan continued: "In just those very words you used, Miss Lotty, lies right and wrong most times. 'In some way,' you said, if you remember. Well, that's just it. Very often it is not the thing itself that's wrong, but the abuse of it; it's the degree it's given way to that makes it either wrong or right. Can't you see that running through almost everything? God has put us here to learn self-control and moderation and obedience to his will. 'Thus far shalt thou go and no farther,' is the boundary line to many of our enjoyments, if not to every affair and act in life. I can see with half an eye that since you have been here you've given way to all your whimsies and humours to their fullest extent, and how much happier have you really been? And mark, it was the abuse mostly, not the moderate use, of your liberty that spoiled your pleasure. Miss Mechie was wrong to encourage you, and I hope she will not do it again. And now, before I go listen to this text, and keep it always in mind."
"But just tell me this, Susan," interposed Charlotte. "You say that God shows us things are harmful if we abuse their use, but how? I don't understand you."
"You have seen those things they call buoys floating on the water?" questioned Susan.
"Yes."
"What do they put them out there for?"
"For? Oh, to denote danger of some kind and to warn vessels not to come any farther, lest they be lost or seriously injured."
"That's it—that's it exactly. The instant the feeling of wrong, or the appearance of wrong, comes up into any pleasant thing, depend upon it that is, as it were, a buoy floating over some hidden danger to the soul. When amusements or feastings begin to bring uneasy sensations to the body, be sure you are going too far—you are passing the buoy! God has given us all things richly to enjoy, but only in moderation and in the way in which he sees best for our temporal and eternal interests; and when in our obstinacy we choose either to have things different from his will or in greater excess than is good for us, then the pleasantest things become hurtful—become wrong. But I must go to mistress now, so I will just leave you a text or two and then run away."
Taking her Bible, Susan read the following: "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." And again: "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." And once more: "Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith."