sent it for her._ She _knows_ you, _and would so value it.... She
suffers so much that I long for what I know would so please her."
... "Thank you very much for sending me the letter, and for
writing Minnie's name.... I am quite sure that all these children
will say a loving prayer for the 'Alice-man' on Easter Day: and I
am sure the letter will help the little ones to the real Easter
joy. How I do wish that you, who have won the hearts and
confidence of so many children, would do for them what is so very
near my heart, and yet what no one will do, viz. write a book for
children about_ GOD _and themselves, which is_ not _goody, and
which begins at the right end, about religion, to make them see
what it really is. I get quite miserable very often over the
children I come across: hardly any of them have an idea of_
really _knowing that_ GOD _loves them, or of loving and confiding
in Him. They will love and trust_ me, _and be sure that I want
them to be happy, and will not let them suffer more than is
necessary: but as for going to Him in the same way, they would
never think of it. They are dreadfully afraid of Him, if they
think of Him at all, which they generally only do when they have
been naughty, and they look on all connected with Him as very
grave and dull: and, when they are full of fun and thoroughly
happy, I am sure they unconsciously hope He is not looking. I am
sure I don't wonder they think of Him in this way, for people_
never _talk of Him in connection with what makes their little
lives the brightest. If they are naughty, people put on solemn
faces, and say He is very angry or shocked, or something which
frightens them: and, for the rest, He is talked about only in a
way that makes them think of church and having to be quiet. As
for being taught that all Joy and all Gladness and Brightness is
His Joy--that He is wearying for them to be happy, and is not
hard and stern, but always doing things to make their days
brighter, and caring for them so tenderly, and wanting them to
run to Him with_ all _their little joys and sorrows, they are
not taught that. I do so long to make them trust Him as they
trust us, to feel that He will 'take their part' as they do with
us in their little woes, and to go to Him in their plays and
enjoyments and not only when they say their prayers. I was quite
grateful to one little dot, a short time ago, who said to his
mother 'when I am in bed, I put out my hand to see if I can feel_