"And I suppose you told her that you thought so?" said Miss Jameson. "You did not try to coax her into a better temper, nor to show her how much better it is to be fair and truthful?"
"Why no. What would have been the good?" asked Katie; "I have no patience with Edith."
"I hate her," exclaimed Florrie, vehemently.
"Oh, Florrie! Florrie!" cried her governess, "you cannot know what you are saying. Do you forget what the Bible says of one who hates another?"
"What, Miss Jameson?" asked Florrie.
"He that hateth his brother is a murderer," said Miss Jameson, slowly.
"Oh," exclaimed Florrie, looking startled; "what a dreadful verse, Miss Jameson. A murderer, you can't think that I felt like that?"
"No, dear, I do not; but it is to such dreadful things that hatred leads. I cannot believe, however, that you really hate Edith. But I wish you children would ask yourselves how it would be with you, if God should feel towards you as you feel towards Edith."
"Why, Miss Jameson, how could that be?" asked Gertie.
"It might easily be," returned Miss Jameson, "if our God were not a God of love. Think how often you sin against Him and grieve Him, yet His heart is ever full of love towards you. Should you not try to forgive Edith and all who vex you, as God, for Christ's sake, forgives you?"