"I am searching for the 'Becauses,'" he said, looking up with his genial smile; "and I want to find this one, 'We love Him "because" He first loved us!'"
Norman's face flushed as he turned over the pages as directed to the First Epistle of John, and the fourth chapter, and the nineteenth verse. Was this an answer to his questionings?
"I have been thinking a great deal about that one," Jack's father went on; "and it has comforted me to remember that though my love is often cold and faint, yet my salvation does not depend on that, for it is because He loved me that I am His at all!"
Norman's eyes flashed an answering look of joyful acquiescence, and something prompted him to say: "That's just what I wanted, sir. I'd got all mixed up!"
"Ah!" said the invalid, "We do! The more earnest we are in wishing to please God, the more, I think, Satan tries to discourage us and make us doubt that we are serving Him at all. And this is where my 'because' comes in; not my love, but His, being my safety."
The invalid smiled happily; and then they heard Jack's step come bounding through the house, and his "Hullo, Norman, have you come?" sounded with a hearty, cheery welcome.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
THE HAUNTED ROOM.
"You will be disappointed if you expect too much," said Agnes, holding the door in her hand and looking into five eager faces congregated on the landing.
"Let us in, then, and we'll tell you!" answered Hugh, a tall boy of about fifteen. "You are as bad as the 'penny-a-liners,' who pile up the interest to the end of the chapter, and then leave you in the lurch!"