“If God hears prayer, why are most people so miserable?”
“I don’t think most people are miserable,” said Effie, gravely. “I don’t think anybody that trusts in God can be very miserable.”
Christie leaned back again on the stone, from which she had half risen.
“Those who have been pardoned and accepted,” she thought; but aloud she said, “Well, I don’t know: there are some good people that have trouble enough. There’s old Mrs Grey. Wave after wave of trouble has passed over her. I heard the minister say those very words to father about her.”
“But, Christie,” said her sister, gravely, “you should ask Mrs Grey, some time, if she would be willing to lose her trust in God for the sake of having all her trouble taken away. I am quite sure she would not hesitate for a moment. She would smile at the thought of even pausing to choose.”
“But, Effie, that’s not what we are speaking about. I’m sure that Mrs Grey prayed many and many a time that her son John might be spared to his family. Just think of them, so helpless—and their mother dead, and little Allie blind! And the minister prayed for him too, in the kirk, and all the folk, that so useful a life might be spared. But, for all that, he died, Effie.”
“Yes; but, Christie, Mrs Grey never prayed for her son’s life except in submission to God’s will. If his death would be for the glory of God, she prayed to be made submissive to His will, and committed herself and her son’s helpless little ones to God’s keeping.”
Christie looked at her sister with eyes filled with astonishment.
“You don’t mean to say that if Mrs Grey had had her choice she wouldna have had her son spared to her?”
“I mean that if she could have had her choice she would have preferred to leave the matter in God’s hands. She would never have chosen for herself.”