“God’s ways are not our ways, His will be done.”
That night after the old gentleman had retired to rest, Bertie crept to his bedside and said,—
“Grandfather, the reason I did not stop to-night was I didn’t want to talk with anybody only you, but I have prayed to God a great many times, and asked him to take me for his child, and make me just what he wants me to be, and somehow I feel as though he hears me.”
“Would you be ashamed to have your father and mother know how you feel?”
“I shouldn’t be ashamed to have the whole school know I am trying to be good and be a Christian.”
A week passed away, and the old gentleman found no opportunity to talk with James, as he was busy out of doors, and did not come into the shop, but on Saturday evening as the former was sitting in his bedroom, James entered and said,—
“Grandfather, I have done what you wished me to, and I have been studying the New Testament to find out what sin is and whether I am a sinner.”
“What did you find there?”
“I found that sin is the transgression of the law; that it is not doing this or that, but having a wrong principle, and that I had a wrong principle, and so there was not a bit of good in me. When I came to cipher the thing right out, I saw that it was not because it was a sin against God that I didn’t do as the rest in the workhouse did, but because Mr. Holmes told me not to, and that Mr. Holmes was my God all the while.”
“Ah! you’ve got to the bottom of it now, my boy.”