"'You've been very proud, my boy, and thought you could get on very well without any help but your own determination to do right.'"
"Well, what more do we want?" I said.
"Has it been enough, Stewart? Hasn't this been a miserable failure? and are you not complaining now that you are more wicked than you thought possible?"
"Well, yes, that's true enough," I confessed.
"Now let me tell you, Stewart, what mother told me. God knew you would fail. He knew when He put Adam into the garden of Eden that he wouldn't keep straight long; but He gave him a fair chance, and He loved him so much that He provided a remedy at once for the sins he and all men would commit. The Lord Jesus Christ agreed then to bear the sins of the whole world—yours and mine among them, Stewart—and this is what is meant by forgiveness of sins. You never felt you needed forgiveness before for you never felt the burden of sin."
"But look here, Chandos, I don't see how God is going to forgive me, because, you see, I knew better."
"Of course you did. But have you never read in your Bible, 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.' 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us'? but God is showing you the truth now—that you need pardon and forgiveness, and He is willing to give you these; pardon for the sins already committed, to wash them all away in the blood of His dear Son, who gave His life for you; and not only pardon, but grace and strength for the future to enable you to resist the temptation to do wrong at any future time."
"Look here, if God would help me like that, I shall feel so glad," I said; "it's no good for me to say I'll always keep on the square any more after this mean trick, for I may do another, as Tom did. He didn't stop at the first, and I'm afraid I shan't if God don't help me. Oh, Chandos, I do want Him to help me out of this scrape, and keep me from doing anything like this again."
"Well, Charley, suppose we kneel down now and ask God for this, and then you shall tell me all about it if you like."
"I think I had better tell you first," I said, "and then you can tell God for me. I'll try and do it myself by-and-by, but I can't just at once. I'm not good enough to kneel down at all."