"I cannot understand why you are always talking of baptism, Amy," said Dora; "it seems as if it had something to do with everything, according to your notions."
"According to mamma's notions, you mean; she reminds me of it so often that I cannot possibly forget it."
"But there is no one in the world who has kept the promise," said Dora; "and then they say we have such a wicked nature; what is the use of thinking about being good when we have no power to be so?"
"I do not think I understand it quite," replied Amy, "and I am sure,
Dora, I cannot teach you, but I could tell you what mamma tells me."
"And what is that?" asked Dora.
"Mamma says," answered Amy, "that when we are born we all have very wicked natures; but that, when we are baptized, God gives us a new nature which is good; and that, when we grow up, we can do right if we really wish to do it, because we have the Holy Spirit always to help us; and once, when I made an excuse for something I had done wrong, by saying that it was natural, and I could not help it, she told me that it might have been an excuse if I had not been baptized, but that now it was no excuse at all."
"Then what are we to do?" said Dora; "no person really keeps their promise. How wicked we must all be!"
"Mamma says we are," replied Amy; "and that we ought to be so very careful about our smallest actions, and our words and thoughts, because it is so dangerous to do wrong now."
"But," said Dora, "I cannot see why people should be baptized, if it only makes them worse off than they were before."
"Oh! but indeed, Dora," exclaimed Amy, looking rather shocked, "it makes us better off than we were before,—a great deal better off; for you know the service about baptism says that we are made God's children, really His children; and that, when we die, we shall go to heaven, if we try and do right now, and beg Him to forgive us when we do wrong, for our Saviour's sake."