“Even when it brings us trouble and distress?”
“Then most of all, good soul, if you did but know.”
“Even when it leads us into temptation—drives us to sin?” The widow looked up at him quickly as she spoke, and lowered her eyes again.
“We mortals are poor clay; God has need of strange ways to work us to His will.”
“Then you think all that happens is decreed—a part of God’s plan with us?”
“In a way, yes. Each man’s actions are determined by the nature of his soul; that makes his fate. All that men do is a result of their own character. But the deeds that we do most naturally are good. Therefore, we should each be master of ourself.”
“But a sin committed can never be a good action or lead to any good. Surely it were better that such an act had never been?”
“A sin committed can bring out the good in one who is so made that the good in him can be reached by no other way. One can wander through many lands and yet not escape from one evil deed. The memory of it will stay fresh in the mind, and in time can soften the hardest heart, or make the weakest strong; good thoughts and strength of will grow out of it. I speak as I have found it. But perhaps you have not found it so.”
The woman bent over her work.
“Yes,” she said. “You speak the truth. I, too, have sinned, and the memory of it has made me better than I was, or ever could have been without it. But I never thought of it so until now.”