“I must not wait until I am better for God to love me, then,” said Amy doubtfully.
“Again, do you obey your mother in order to become her child; or do you obey her because she loves you and is your mother, Amy?”
“Because she is my mother,” said Amy.
“And will your obedience make you more her child than you are, Amy?”
“No, ma’am.”
“But because you are her child and she loves you, does that make you careless of obeying her?”
“If I only could be a better child to please her!” said Amy, the tears gathering in her eyes.
“It is so with God, my child,” said Mrs. Mordaunt. “He loves you, not because you are good, but because he is good—because he is love, and so loved you that he gave his Son that you might be saved. Before you can love him, you must believe his word—that he loves you; and believing he loves you, he will make you good and happy. God has given the Bible to tell of his love to you. Read it, my child; believe it.”
Mrs. Harrison came in just then, and Mrs. Mordaunt, after saying a few words to her, rose to leave.
That evening Amy took out her Bible with a new interest. “Can it be possible, indeed,” thought she, “that God has written in this book that he loves me—me, a little sinful child! I will look and see.” She read some of the passages she had learned before for Mrs. Mordaunt: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa. lv. 1). “May I, indeed, come without anything to offer, and will God give me all I want?” Then: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John iii. 14, 15). “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John v. 24).