I die."

"My dear young friend," answered Mr Martin, "had you read the Bible,
you would have found that `there are none that do good, no, not one;'
and that `God came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance.' God will certainly be well pleased with you, not from any
good works which you can do, but simply if you banish all thoughts of
your own merits, and put faith in His well-beloved Son; then He will
assuredly fulfil His promise to make you heir with Him of eternal life,
and receive you into that glorious heaven he has prepared for all those
who love Him."

"But I am afraid, sir, that I can never have faith enough or love enough
to satisfy God."

"You certainly, my young friend, can never have too much faith or too
much love," said Mr Martin. "But God does not say that He will measure
our faith or our love, or our sorrow for sin, but He simply tells us to
take him at His word, to show our love by our obedience; and then Jesus
Christ tells us what He would have all those who love Him to do, namely,
to follow His example--to make known His Gospel among those who do not
know it. Have you read the account of the thief on the cross?"

"I have heard it," said Laurence. "Jeanie read it to me yesterday."

"Did it not occur to you that, when Christ told that dying thief that he
should be with Him in paradise, it was not on account of his burning
faith, still less because he had performed any works, or because of
obedience, but simply because he believed that He who hung like himself
on the cross was the Messiah who should come into the world to die for
sinful men. But though He saves all who come to Him, simply if they
will but trust Him, He desires these to remain in the world, as He
desired His disciples, to make His Gospel known among their companions,
to tell them what great things the Lord has done for their souls; while
to some He gives the command to go forth with the glad tidings
throughout all lands; and thus He has put it into my heart, and enabled
me to come here to win souls for Him."

Day after day Laurence listened to these and other glorious truths which
Mr Martin unfolded to him from God's Word, and when the missionary was
otherwise engaged, Jeanie or Mrs Ramsay read to him, or assisted him in
learning to read. He felt himself becoming, as he was indeed, a new
creature; his old habits of thought were passing away. He wondered
sometimes how he could have thought as he had done.

"Ah,