“I am glad to hear you say so, Annorah; I do so hope,” said Annie, as the affectionate tears stole down her thin cheek, “that you are beginning to learn in the school of Christ. But, my poor girl, you will meet much opposition. I am afraid that your family will join with the priest in opposing you.”
“Let them. I’ll fight them all with pleasure—more especially the praste.”
“But fighting is not the way to make them think well of the religion of Jesus. He was mild and gentle, patient under abuse and persecution; and he must be your pattern, if you desire to please God. You must pray to him, Annorah, for a new heart, so that none of these angry feelings will trouble you.”
“Is it the new heart, miss, that makes you so sweet and patient?”
“If I have any goodness, Annorah, it is because God has changed my old heart, and made it better. It is his grace that enables me to suffer without complaining; and it is his love, which I feel in my heart, that makes me calm and happy in my greatest pain.”
“Then I am sure,” said the girl earnestly, forgetting for a moment that she was overheard. “I will never rest a day at all, till I get that same done for me. But mayhap he will not be so willing to look upon me.”
“In his holy Book we read that he is no respecter of persons, and that whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out.”
“Why, then, I can coom as soon as the grandest. How shall I coom?”
“I will tell you how I came to him. I studied his holy Word to learn his will, and I prayed often that he would give me his Spirit to teach me the way to him.”
“An’ did he?”