“What are you reading this morning, Jane?”
“Sir, I have been thinking very much about some verses in my little book. Here they are,—
‘There is an hour when I must die,
Nor do I know how soon ’twill come;
A thousand children young as I
Are called by death to hear their doom.Let me improve the hours I have,
Before the day of grace is fled;
There’s no repentance in the grave,
Nor pardon offered to the dead.’
“Sir, I feel all that to be very true, and I am afraid I do not improve the hours I have, as I ought to do. I think I shall not live very long; and when I remember my sins, I say,—
‘Lord, at thy feet ashamed I lie,
Upward I dare not look;
Pardon my sins before I die,
And blot them from thy book.’
Do you think he will pardon me, sir?”
“My dear child, I have great hopes that he has pardoned
you; that he has heard your prayers, and put you into the number of his true children already. You have had strong proofs of his mercy to your soul.”
“Yes, sir, I have, and I wish to love and bless him for it. He is good, very good.”
It had for some time past occurred to my mind that a course of regulated conversations on the first principles of religion would be very desirable from time to time, for this interesting child’s sake: and I thought the Church Catechism would be the best groundwork for that purpose.