“And if your mother could not bear to see you in want, and were to come out to you in the cold night with food and kind words, would you turn away from her and say, ‘I know she can never love me, I have been so naughty;’ and would you refuse to receive her kindness, and ask her forgiveness?”
Amy bent down her head.
“Or would you say,” continued Mrs. Mordaunt, “as you saw her coming, ‘I will not go to meet her now; I will go and try to earn a few pence, and then I will come back to her and say, “Mother, I am very sorry, but here are some pence I have earned. Will you take them and forgive me, and let me be your child again?”’ Would that be humility and gratitude, or pride and ingratitude, Amy?”
“Pride and ingratitude,” said Amy in a low voice.
“And when the Lord Jesus says to you, ‘You have sinned against me and wronged me, and broken my laws; but I have come down from heaven to earth to seek you; come back to me, and I will receive and forgive you,’ would it be humility or pride to say, ‘Thou canst not forgive me, I am too sinful; but wait a little while, and I will do something good, and make myself better, and then I will come back to thee’?”
“Pride,” said Amy. “But I thought God only loved good children, ma’am; and I am not good.”
“God does only love good children, Amy,” said Mrs. Mordaunt very seriously, “and God knows you cannot be good.” Amy looked up in wonder.
“Who was Jesus Christ, Amy?”
“And what did he become man and come into this world for?”