But there is a condition in which it is the privilege of every child of God to live, in which one may be sure of receiving what one asks, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
The two sisters listened most carefully to the simple, clear description of the life that is hid with Christ in God, the life that lets Christ live instead of trying to please self, and that studies daily the Word of God and keeps the word constantly in mind. And the preacher spoke with confidence about answers to prayer for daily needs, as if he had known great experience in receiving.
On their way home Louise, walking along with her eyes on the sidewalk, asked shyly.
“Nellie, do you s’pose that’s all true, what he preached about?”
“Why, yes—of course,” said the elder sister, hesitating, scarcely knowing whither her words were leading her; “why, certainly,” she added with belated conviction and a sense that, if it were so, she had placed herself in a very foolish position; for she had never lived as if she had believed it, and the little sister must know that.
“Well, then,” with the quick conclusion of childhood, “why do we worry? why don’t we do it?”
“We—could,” said her sister thoughtfully; “I don’t know why we never did. I guess we never thought about it. Shall we try it?”
“It won’t do to try it,” said the matter-of-fact little girl, “because he said we had to believe it, you know; and trying is holding on with one hand and watching to see. We’ve got to walk out with both feet and trust. I’m going to!”
“Well, so will I,” said Cornelia slowly, her voice low and almost embarrassed. It seemed a strange topic to be talking about so familiarly with a little girl, her little stranger-sister; but she could not let the child get ahead of her. She could not dash the bright spirit of faith.
“That’s nice,” said Louise with satisfaction. “I’ll tell Harry too. I guess he will; boys are so funny. I wish he’d been in church. But say, Nellie, we can be happy now, can’t we? We don’t need to worry about Carey any more; we can just pray about it and it will all come right.”