"He told you something new, then?" said Mrs Lee.

"No! Oh, no! Nothing new; nothing that I had not heard many times
before. And yet it seemed to come to me as new!" she added, a strange,
sweet smile passing over her face.

"What did he say that was new to you?"

"Some things he said that I shall never forget. He was telling us of
God's love to man, shown in many ways, but most and best of all in the
work of redemption. It wasn't new, what he said; and yet--I don't know
how it was--I seemed to see it as I never saw it before." And again the
same bright smile flashed over her countenance.

"The work of redemption?" repeated Mrs Lee; and there was a questioning
tone in her voice that made Christie look at her doubtfully before
replying.

"Yes; you know, `God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have eternal
life.' And `All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every
one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.' And there are many more verses in the Bible like this. One of
them says, `When there was no eye to pity, or hand to save, God's eye
pitied, and His own arm brought salvation.' I'm not sure that these are
the exact words, but that is the meaning of the verse."

"Brought salvation!" repeated Mrs Lee. "That means that God's people
will be saved, and will go to heaven when they die?"

"Yes," said Christie, hesitatingly. "It means that; but it means
something more. We don't have to wait till we die to get the good of
salvation. We shall be saved from the punishment of sin when we die,
but we are saved here from its power. We come to hate what we once
loved, and to see beauty and worth in things that before were
uninteresting to us. What was hard to do and hard to bear becomes easy
for Christ's sake. Somehow or other, everything seems changed. `Old
things pass away. All things become new.'"

She paused, and letting her cheek rest on the hand that held her Bible,
she gazed into the glowing embers with eyes that seemed to see pleasant
things far-away. Mrs Lee looked at her with wonder for a time, and
then said:

"Has all this happened to you--this change you speak about?"

A sudden flow of tears was the only reply her question received at
first. But soon she raised her head, and said:

"Sometimes--now and then--I have hoped so; and to-day, when God's great
love to sinners was set f