“Yes; even if one could begin one’s life again. It would be all the same. We might avoid some errors and keep from falling into some mistakes; but after all, it would come to the same thing in the end, I dare say. There is no use in wishing for another chance.”
Mrs Lee sighed; and Christie hesitated a moment, and then said: “We can do nothing to save ourselves, ma’am, and all else that we have to do grows easy, because of the grace which God gives, and because of a knowledge of Christ’s love to us. It is easy to do the will of One who loves us, and whom we love.”
There was a long pause after this, which Mrs Lee broke by saying: “What was it you said about ‘no eye to pity, and no arm to save’?”
“Here it is,” said Christie; and she eagerly read the words from her Bible, and many more besides—a verse here and a verse there, as her own judgment or Effie’s marginal marks suggested: such as, “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.
“For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
“If we could be sure that we are among the children of God,” said Mrs Lee, with a sigh. And soon after she added: “There are a great many things in the Bible that are hard to understand.”