“And you will be but giving him of his own; you are his because he made you, his, because He has kept you alive all these years, His, because he has bought you with his own precious blood. He has lent you to me for a time, but you belong to him. Do not refuse him his own, my child.
“I hope and believe that all the rest of us are walking in the straight and narrow way, will you not come with us? Oh, how can I bear to see my dear daughter travelling the broad road that leads to eternal death!”
“Papa, pray for me, ask Jesus to help me to do it just now,” she sobbed, sinking to her knees beside his couch.
He laid his hand tenderly on her bowed head, and in low, earnest tones confessed for her that she was a sinner, lost and undone without the atoning blood of Christ; that she had in herself, no power and no desire to turn from sin unto holiness, that she had often rejected God’s offered mercy and forgiveness, and refused to accept the Saviour’s gracious invitation, ‘Come unto me;’ then he pleaded for her that her sins might be forgiven and blotted out, for Jesus’ sake; that he would take away all the evil of her nature, wash her thoroughly from her iniquity and cleanse her from her sin, and enable her to give herself wholly and unreservedly to his service.
As his voice ceased she followed him in a few broken sentences:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I am a great sinner, just as papa has said, and oh, I am afraid I don’t want to be any better, but please make me want to, and to love to belong to thee even more than I do to be papa’s very own. I will, I do give myself to thee. Oh, take me and make me all good, no bad at all left in me. For thine own name’s sake. Amen.”
For some moments there seemed a solemn stillness in the room, she still kneeling there, with her father’s hand resting tenderly on her head, then in low tremulous tones:
“Papa,” she asked, “do you think he heard me, and will take me for his?”
“I know it, my child, if you asked with your heart, as I believe you did, for he is the hearer and answerer of prayer!”
Then again he poured out an earnest supplication on her behalf, asking that she might be kept ever near the Saviour’s side, growing in grace and conformity to his will all the days of her life on earth, and at last be taken to dwell forever with him in heaven.