"Perhaps it was a bag full of cares," observed Mrs. Reardon, who was pleased to see her husband interested in the conversation.
"No," answered the child, shaking her head gravely, "nor cares either. We know what to do with them. It tells us in the Bible—'Cast all your care upon God, for He careth for you.' It seems as if there was always something about everything in the Bible."
"Bessie is right," interrupted Polly. "I recollect now teacher telling us that Christian's burden was his sins."
"I am afraid he must have been a very wicked man," said Mrs. Reardon.
"I don't know," answered Polly. "It says in the text we have to learn for next Sunday—
"'All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.'"
"It appears to me," said Matthew, "that the more one thinks about this burden, the heavier it would be likely to grow; so that at last it would be more than a man could bear."
"No one need bear it if they don't like," replied Bessie. "They have only to go and leave it where Christian left his, at the foot of the cross. But we haven't come to that yet," continued she. "There's something about a 'wicket gate' first, with the words—'Knock, and it shall be opened' written over it, and which a man he met in the way told him of."
"Why those were the very words that old Marshall used," exclaimed Matthew.
"No, father, it wasn't Mr. Marshall," said Polly. "It was Evangelist. I don't wonder that Bessie could not remember the name."