AT HOME.
And what did the children think of Mrs. Mordaunt's words? We will
follow them home and see. Little Jane Hutton, I am afraid, forgot
them; for during the service her eyes kept wandering round the church
in search of gay dresses and bonnets, and watching what her
school-fellows thought of her own new ribbons.
Kitty Harrison had attended to what Mrs. Mordaunt said, and resolved
to do it; so she found out all the places in her prayer-book, and went
home full of plans of amendment, and in the evening she drew her
little stool to the window, and began to read her Bible, _not_ so
much because she wished to learn what it said, as because she thought
it _right_ to read it. But, in the first place, her thoughts would
keep wandering to Jane Hutton's ribbons, then she could not help
listening to what her father and mother were talking about, and the
kitten would keep playing with her frock; and so she got through a
chapter without very well understanding it, and then was rather glad
that it grew too dark for her to read any more. Soon after, the
children were sent to bed, and Kitty went upstairs wondering why she
did not like to read the Bible better, and rather pleased to think
that to-morrow was a play-day.
Kitty had forgotten two great things: she had forgotten that to love
_God's Word_ we must first love _God_; and she had forgotten that the
little seed could not sprout without rain, and that the dew of heaven,
the Holy Spirit, must be _asked for_.
Meantime, Amy was feeling very differently. She thought how good it
was of Jesus, the Son of God, to care about the love of little
children, and to watch the good seed sown in their hearts, and nourish
it, and water it, and make it grow; and she thought that it would be
the happiest thing in the world to be his disciple, and to do what he
wished, and be loved and approved by him; and she resolved to try. So
as they walked home, she planned that she would go into a quiet place
in the garden, under the trees, and pray to God.
But when they reached the cottage, they had to put away their Sunday
things; and when Amy came down her mother desired her to keep the baby
while she got the tea ready. Amy thought it hard to be hindered in her
plans; but she remembered the verse, "By love serve one another," and
it came into her mind that Christ might be as pleased at her
cheerfully giving up her own way to help her mother, as if she had
been praying to him, and the thought made her happy, and she danced
the baby, and played with it till it crowed with delight. After tea,
she could not find any quiet in the room where the family were
sitting, so she went into the bedroom and knelt down by the bedside.
She had always been accustomed to say her prayers morning and evening,
because she had been taught, and because she would have been afraid to
go to sleep without; but now it was a different thing--_she wanted
something which she felt only God could give_. She wanted to be made
good, to have her sins forgiven, to have strength to overcome her
faults, that Christ might love her and bless her; and she asked this
earnestly of him. She felt sure he would hear; and she rose from her
knees with a lightened heart, and opened her Bible and read, until it
was quite dark, of the Saviour and his goodness. And that night she
went to sleep happy in the care of God.