"And will your obedience make you more her child than you are, Amy?" "No, ma'am." "But because you are her child and she loves you, does that make you careless of obeying her?" "If I only could be a better child to please her!" said Amy, the tears gathering in her eyes. "It is so with God, my child," said Mrs. Mordaunt. "He loves you, not because you are good, but because he is good--because he is love, and so loved you that he gave his Son that you might be saved. Before you can love him, you must believe his word--that he loves you; and believing he loves you, he will make you good and happy. God has given the Bible to _tell of his love to you_. Read it, my child; believe it." Mrs. Harrison came in just then, and Mrs. Mordaunt, after saying a few words to her, rose to leave. That evening Amy took out her Bible with a new interest. "Can it be possible, indeed," thought she, "that God has written in this book that he loves me--_me_, a little sinful child! I will look and see." She read some of the passages she had learned before for Mrs. Mordaunt: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa. lv. 1). "May I, indeed, come without anything to offer, and will God give me all I want?" Then: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that _whosoever_ believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John iii. 14, 15). "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John v. 24). "Can I not _now_ hear his words," she thought, "and _do I not_ believe?" She had read the words often before, but now a new light seemed to stream forth from them. She wanted forgiveness, and here was forgiveness offered; she wanted God to love her, and here in every page was some message of love from him. The Spirit of God opened the little child's heart to the Word of God, and she read on as if she never could hear enough of this blessed news. "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us; we love him because he first loved us."