She smiled radiantly.
'Ah! you have answered your own doubt! Life is only as a day compared with eternity. What though God, for some wise and good purpose, were to part us on earth! has He not promised an everlasting home of perfect happiness after life? Oh, dear boy, let us praise Him every hour for the gift of love He has generously bestowed on us. Don't let us use His gift to deny Him! Besides, it is wrong for a weak human creature to consider persistently and hopelessly all the possible sorrows of his future. God has promised not to fail us, to send us grace sufficient for the differing needs of every crisis. We can't expect to be brave in advance, but we must trust Him to give us our "daily bread."'
'You mean that if God takes you from me some day, He will give me strength to bear the blow?'
'Yes, dear; that is certain.'
'And I am no hypocrite if I thank Him for a gift which I cannot yet bear the thought of His recalling?'
'Not if you try honestly to pray, as He taught us, "Thy will be done." That does not mean that you think yourself ready, unaided, to bear the blow, only that you admit His right to do as He pleases with His own creations, and that you believe His will to be designed for our highest welfare.'
Brian sighed, as a man does from whom a great trouble has departed.
'I will believe that God is good, therefore that He is merciful to the weakness of His servants. My faith grows stronger when you teach me, Catherine.'