“Then I must be saved!”
“Yes, if you believe that he made atonement for your sins.”
“Then I cannot be saved except I believe that I shall be saved. And I cannot believe I shall be saved until I know I shall be saved!”
“You are cavilling, Arctura! Ah, this is what you have been learning of Mr. Grant! I ought not to have gone away!”
“Nothing of the sort!” said Arctura, drawing herself up a little. “I am sorry if I have said anything wrong; but really I can get hold of nothing! I feel sometimes as if I should go out of my mind.”
“Arctura, I have done my best for you! If you think you have found a better teacher, no warning, I fear, will any longer avail!”
“If I did think I had found a better teacher, no warning certainly would; I am only afraid I have not. But of one thing I am sure—that the things Mr. Grant teaches are much more to be desired than—”
“By the unsanctified heart, no doubt!” said Sophia.
“The unsanctified heart,” rejoined Arctura, astonished at her own boldness, and the sense of power and freedom growing in her as she spoke, “surely needs God as much as the sanctified! But can the heart be altogether unsanctified that desires to find God so beautiful and good that it can worship him with its whole power of love and adoration? Or is God less beautiful and good than that?”
“We ought to worship God whatever he is.”