There was no answer for a moment, and all looked confused; at length there was a faint "No."
"I fear not," continued Mr. Gillette: "how, then, must you say this Catechism before you are ready to be confirmed?"
"We must speak it from the heart," said Judy M'Grath.
Some of the boys smiled at her Irish accent, but one glance from Mr. Gillette sobered them.
"Right! When do you take upon yourselves the promises made for you by your sponsors in Baptism?" he asked.
"At Confirmation," several replied.
"True," said Mr. Gillette, "at Confirmation you take these promises publicly upon yourselves. I see many before me," said he, looking tenderly about him, "who are too young for Confirmation, but hardly a child who is not old enough to make those solemn promises to God in private, and strive earnestly to keep them. Do not wait, my dear children, until you are old enough to be confirmed, before you promise to love and obey the Saviour who has redeemed you. Your sponsors laid you as infants on His bosom; turn not from Him with your first feeble footsteps. You were made members of Christ at Baptism; ask God this day to help you to live as the lambs of His flock. If you commence now to strive to keep your baptismal promises, Confirmation will indeed be, as it ought, a strengthening of you in all that is good, an assistance in leading that holy life which becomes the children of God, the members of Christ, and the inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.
"Let me ask you once more, Do you not believe that you are bound to believe and do as your sponsors promised for you? Let me hear that answer again, and may God give you strength to speak it from the heart."
"Yes, verily, and by God's help so I will; and I heartily thank our Heavenly Father that He has called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord," was heard from the throng around the chancel.
Even those who stood nearest to Lucy could hardly hear her voice; no human friend saw her uplifted eye; but God, who seeth all hearts, accepted the vow she made in His holy temple, and she felt more fully than she had ever done before, that she was indeed the child of God.