'I will answer your question by asking another, Harry. Do you think her love for the child interferes with that she owes to God?'
Harry was for a few moments silent. At last he answered, 'She certainly loves him better than she does God, and that is not right; but you always told Effie and me that we could not love each other too well.'
'And I told you right, provided that love is made subservient to a holier one. But your first duty is, in the words of our Saviour, "to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Obedience to this precept involves a great many other duties, but none of these should interfere with the great first command.'
'But, father,' inquired Harry, 'if Mrs Gilman should become a Christian, would she love her baby less.'
'No, she might love it more, but not with the same kind of affection she bears it now. This is a blind idolatry—her child is her all, and she cannot bear to part with it, even though it should join her lost husband, and wear a crown in glory. If she were a Christian, she would be able to say, "Thy will be done," and to place entire confidence in the Divine Master, and bow in submission to His requirements, even though they should call on her to resign this treasure.'
'Oh, how happy we should be, if we loved God better than anything else!' said Harry.
After they had arrived at home, and while Mrs Maurice was engaged in preparing some comfortable things for the poor woman, Harry was heard to whisper in his sister's ear, 'Poor Mrs Gilman makes a god of her baby, Effie.'