“That which thou needest,” was the quiet answer.
“What do I need?” asked Phoebe.
“To have thy will moulded after God’s will.”
“Do you think I don’t wish God’s will to be done, Mrs Dorothy?”
Mrs Dorothy smiled. “I quite believe, dear child, thou art willing He should have His way with respect to all the things thou dost not care about.”
“Mrs Dorothy!”
“My dear, that is what most folks call being resigned to the will of God.”
“Mrs Dolly, why do people always talk as though God’s will must be something dreadful? If somebody die, or if some accident happen, they say, ‘Ah, ’tis God’s will, and we must submit.’ But when something pleasant comes, they never say it then. Don’t you think the pleasant things are God’s will, as well as the disagreeable ones?”
“More so, Phoebe. ‘In all our affliction, He is afflicted.’ ‘He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.’ Pleasant things are what He loves to give us; bitter things, what He needs must.”
“Then why do people talk so?” repeated Phoebe.