“My dear child, the more sinful we are the more we need him to save us; don’t you remember that the angel said to Joseph, ‘Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins’?
“And he himself said, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”
“But, papa, oughtn’t I to conquer my temper first? I—I’d be a disgraceful kind of a Christian with such a bad, bad temper.”
“No, my daughter; ‘If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.’ God’s time is always ‘Now.’ Come at once to Jesus and he will help you in the hard struggle with your temper.”
Violet’s entrance at that moment put an end to the conversation.
“Ah, Lulu,” she said pleasantly, “you have been having a very nice time with papa all to yourself, I suppose?”
“Yes, indeed, Mamma Vi,” returned the little girl, as the captain gently put her off his knee, that he might rise and hand his wife a chair. “Papa, shall I go now and see if Gracie is awake and wanting me?”
“Yes,” he said, glancing at his watch, “it is nearly tea-time.”
“How fond the child is of her father,” remarked Violet, smiling up into her husband’s face as Lulu left the room.
“And her father of her,” he responded. “I should count myself a rich man with one such child; but with four, and a peerless wife beside, I am richer than all the gold of California could make me without them.”