"I can't be like you," answered Sandy; "I'm not good, like you. I don't know hardly anythink yet about God, and Jesus, and heaven. If it hadn't been for you, I shouldn't have known anythink about it; and I'm afeard I shall forget it all if you die, and go away."
He could not bear the thought that he should forget God; yet it seemed in this hour of darkness that if John Shafto died, he must fall back into the old ignorance and wickedness, and know nothing more than the sin and misery of this world. Who was to teach him as John had done? Who would there be to tell him so plainly and so surely that the Lord Jesus Christ, who was seeking him, was ready at every moment to take care of him? He could not see Christ, nor hear Him; and if John were gone, how could he feel certain that it was all true?
"Sandy," said John Shafto, "you love me?"
"Ay!" sobbed Sandy.
"You believe what I tell you?" he said again.
"Ay!" he answered.
"By-and-by," continued the faint, low voice, "You'll feel like that towards Jesus Christ. It's just the same thing. You'll love me and believe me after I'm gone, when you can't see me or hear me. And you must love and believe in Him exactly the same, though you can't see or hear Him. He loves you more than I do, a hundred times, a thousand times more. I don't think it's a different kind of love, only it's a thousand times more and better. He's done everything I've asked Him for you, save one."
"What's that?" asked Sandy, lifting up his head to look with dimmed eyes into John's face.
"I did so want you to find Gip before I died," he whispered; "poor little Gip! I'd like to see her. And you'd have been so happy, it wouldn't have been half the trouble to you for me to die. If she's in heaven, I shall see her there; and perhaps Jesus Himself will show me which one of the little children she is. I should tell her all about you, Sandy. But if she's not dead, I did so want to see her just for once."
"I've almost forgot what she's like," said Sandy, with some bitterness in his tone; "I ought to have found her afore this, if I are to know her again."