"Well, and what are you going to do now?" asked the doctor. "Are you going to give the matter up in despair?"
"I don't want to give up, but I don't know what to do. I try to come to Christ and believe on him as the Bible says, but it seems all unreal, as if it were dreaming the same old dreams over again. I shall never have faith enough to be saved."
"My dear girl, I think you are under a mistake," said the doctor. "Faith is not a kind of currency wherewith people can buy salvation if only they have enough of it. It is rather the hand whereby one lays hold of salvation. If you had all faith, so that you could remove mountains, you would not thereby merit anything. If you have faith enough to come to Christ, you have enough to be saved by him.
"'If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us and help us,' cried the poor father.
"We should call that a very weak faith, but our Lord helped instead of condemned it."
"But, doctor, how can I know that I am saved—that I have come?" asked Marion, eagerly. "How can I know for certain? Now it all seems dreamlike and vague, as if it might be one of my day-dreams."
"Do you believe in the Bible?"
"Certainly I do."
"Well, then, there is the ground of your assurance:
"'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.'
"'That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'