“Ah,” said Edgar sadly, “that is because you are converted, and I am not! I have tried so hard. Oh, so many times, after I have heard sermons, I have felt so frightened, and I have made up my mind I would be a Christian; and then in bed I have cried so, and I have thought, that surely this time I must really go on right, and the next day, it has all been different again, and I did not care a bit about it!”
“But, Edgar, the Lord Jesus wants you to come to Him, a great deal more than you want it. I know He does, because he says, ‘Ye will not come to me that ye might have life.’”
“But what is coming?” said Edgar in a dreary voice.
“Well, I’ll tell you the way, my mother once explained it to me. Don’t you know, if the Lord Jesus were here on the earth, you would go to the place where He was, and say, ‘I am here, Lord Jesus; I come;’ and so now you can say that while you are sitting here, because He is here, and everywhere; so you need not move. And, Edgar, don’t you think He knows that you say it? I am certain He does, because He has been wanting you to answer, ever since He called.”
“But,” said Edgar, “you make it out, as if it was not to try a bit.”
“Well, and that is it,” said Arthur, with a bright, happy smile. “That is just what mother says. I can tell you another thing she said. You remember about the Lord Jesus feeding the people in the wilderness?”
“Yes, with the loaves and the fishes.”
“Yes; that was it. Well, all He wanted them to do, was to rest on the grass, and be fed; and that was just the thing, that pleased Him best. You see they had not to try and do anything hard—had they? And mother said, that this is what the Lord Jesus wants us to do—to stop trying, and let Him do what He likes with us; and, you know, the Lord Jesus could not do anything unkind, could He?”
“You don’t seem one bit afraid of Him, Arthur.”
“Why, no. How could I be afraid?” asked Arthur, with such a happy smile. “Don’t you know