'Well, I partly forgot about it that summer, I was so happy. You know
what a good time we had with everything, and I forgot about wanting
comfort. But after you went away that autumn to Lisbon and to England,
then the want came back. You were very good about writing, and I
enjoyed your letters very much; and yet, somehow, every one seemed to
make me feel a little worse than I did before. That is, after the first
bit, you know. For an hour, perhaps, while I was reading it, and
reading it the second time, and thinking about it, I was almost
perfectly happy; the letters seemed to bring you near; but when just
that first hour was passed, they made you seem farther off than ever;
farther off every time. And then the want of comfort came back, and I
did not know where to get it. There was nobody to ask, and no help at
all, if I could not find it in the Bible. All that winter, and all the
summer, last summer that was, and all the first part of this last
winter, I did not know what to do, I wanted comfort so. I thought maybe
you would never come back to Seaforth again; and you know there is
nobody else here, and I was quite alone. I never do see anybody but
papa, except Mr. and Mrs. Dallas, who come here once in a while. So I
went to the Bible. I read, and I thought.
'Do you remember those words I once asked you about? Perhaps you do
not, so I will write them down here. "The Lord make His face shine upon
thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon
thee, and give the peace." Those are the words.
'Do you remember what you said at that time, about the pleasure of
seeing a face that looks brightly and kindly upon one? only you did not
know how that could be true of God, because we cannot really _see_ His
face? Well, I thought a great deal about that. You see, there are the
words; and so, I thought, the thing must be possible somehow, and there
must be some way in which they can be true, or the Bible would not say
so. I began to pray that the Lord would make His face shine upon _me_.
Then I remembered another thing. It is only the faces we _love_ that we
care about seeing--I mean, that we care about so very much; and it is
only the faces that love us that _can_ "shine" upon us. But I did not
love God, for I did not know Him; and I knew He could not love me, for
He knew me too well. So I began to pray a different prayer. I asked
that God would teach me to love Him, and make me such a person that He
could love me. It was all very dark and confused before my mind; I
think I was like a person groping about and feeling for things he
cannot see. It was very miserable, for I had no comfort at all; and the
days and the nights were all sad and dark, only I kept a little bit of
hope.
'Then I must tell you another thing. I had been doing nothing but
praying and reading the Bible. But one day I came to these words, which
struck me very much. They are in the fourteenth chapter of John:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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