"I think it will be hard for me to respect myself, after this," said Delia, sighing. "I am sure I cannot expect others to respect me. It does not seem as though I could ever look any one in the face again."
"That very humility must be your safeguard, my child. But Delia, there is One against whom you have offended far more than against any earthly friend. Have you asked forgiveness of Him?"
"Yes, mother," replied Delia, in a low voice, "but it is very hard for me to think that He will forgive me. I don't feel so."
"You have a surer witness than any mere feeling, my dear."
Delia looked at her, inquiringly.
"You have the promises of God, expressed in Holy Scripture, that no repentant sinner who comes seeking forgiveness through the intercession and merits of our Saviour, will be cast out. Feeling is a very uncertain thing, at the best; and often leads us astray, but not so the promises of God. There is no variableness nor shadow of turning in them."
"That is something like what Emily says," observed Delia. "She was very religious when she first came to school, but she says now that it was all feeling, and that she had no more principle than I had."
"Probably that is true," said Mrs. Mason. "They are often mistaken, the one for the other."
"Then you think, mother," said Delia, after a little pause—"that I ought to believe that God has forgiven me? I should be only too glad to think so, but it seems almost presumptuous."
"Do you think, Delia, that you have truly repented of your past sins?"