“‘God is the helper of the poor and the father of the fatherless,’ said Mrs. Allen with a grave but gentle voice,—‘thee must not doubt that. Listen.—We had all sinned against God, and his justice said that we must all be punished,—that we must be miserable in this world, and when we die must go where no one can ever be happy. But though we were all so bad, God pitied us and loved us still—yet he could not forgive us, for he is perfectly just. It was as if we owed him a great debt, and until that debt was paid we could not be his children. But we had nothing to pay.
“‘Then the Son of God came down to earth, and bore all our sins and sorrows, and died for us, and paid our great debt with his own most precious blood.
“‘This is Jesus, the Saviour.’
“‘Yes ma’am,’ said Clary, whose heart had followed every word,—‘that’s what the verse said,—
‘Jesus the Saviour, is his name,—
He freely loves, and without end.”
“She stood as if forgetting there was any one in the room; her eyes fixed on the ground, and the quiet tears running down from them,—her hands clasped with an earnestness that shewed how eagerly her mind was taking in that ‘good news’—‘peace on earth and good will toward men’—which was now preached to her for the first time.
“Little Eunice looked wistfully at her mother, but neither of them spoke.
“At length Mrs. Allen came softly to Clary, and laying her hand on the bowed head, she said,