"I don't wish to deny it," replied Belle. "God sends us trials and cares no doubt, but it is because they are needful for us, and we ought to take them in that way."
"It is easy for one to talk who has never suffered," said Alice. "You don't know any thing about trouble, Belle."
"That does not affect the argument," said Belle. "Either He sends us sorrow because it is good for us, or He does not. The Bible says that all things work together for good to them that love Him, and if that is true, and I suppose you won't dispute it, it appears to me that when God gives us a lesson, we ought to learn it cheerfully, even though it is a pretty hard one, and not fret over it, like Almira Crosby over a French verb."
"I don't mean to distrust God," said Alice, somewhat vexed, "and I don't think I do. I am sure if I am willing to entrust Him with my eternal salvation—"
"You ought to be willing to trust Him with your temporal prosperity," interrupted Belle, finishing the sentence for her. "I think so too; but it appears to me that in the view you take of life, you seem to say in effect, that you are willing to trust God to dispose of the concerns of eternity, but as for those of time, you would prefer to manage them yourself. But I don't think that is very consistent either, for if you don't like His arrangements here, it is very possible that you may not like them any better in Heaven; so that you have no better prospect than that of going on fretting to all eternity."
Alice seemed a good deal struck with this view of the case, but she said again: "You don't know how I am situated, Belle."
"I know that your situation is an uncomfortable and difficult one," replied Belle, "but then I know too that God placed you there, and I don't imagine that He would have done so, unless He had had some work in that particular place which you could do better than anyone else. I don't believe He makes any mistakes in His appointments."
"I am sure I never found out what it was," observed Alice rather peevishly.
"Perhaps you never tried," said Belle.
Alice looked rather hurt. "What should you say was my work," she asked.