Mrs Dorothy knitted very fast for a moment. Phoebe saw that her eyes were filled with tears. "Poor lost sheep!" she said, in a grieved voice. "Poor straying lamb, whom the wolf hath taught to be frightened of the Shepherd! You did not find that in the Bible, my dear." "Oh, but words don't mean the same in the Bible!" urged Gatty. "Surely, Mrs Dorothy, 'twould be quite unreverent to think so." "Surely, my dear, it were more unreverent to think that God does not mean what He saith. When He saith, `I will punish you seven times for your sins,' He means it, Mrs Gatty. And when He saith, `I will be a Father unto you,' shall we say He doth not mean it? O my dear, don't do Him such an injury as that!" "Do God an injury!" said Gatty in an awed whisper. "Ay, a cruel injury!" was the answer. "Men are always injuring God. Either they try to persuade themselves that He means not what He says when He threatens: or else they shut their hearts up close, and then fancy that His heart is shut up too. My dear, He did not tarry to offer to be your Father, until you came and asked Him for it. `He _first_ loved you.' Child, what dost thou know of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Ah, what did she know? For Gatty lived in a dreary time, when religion was at one of its lowest ebb-tides, and had sunk almost to the level of heathen morality. If Gatty had been required to give definitions of the greatest words in the language, and had really done it from the bottom of her heart, according to her own honest belief, the list would have run much in this way:-- "God.--The Great First Cause of all things, who has nothing to do with anything now, but will, at some remote period, punish murderers, thieves, and very wicked people. "Christ.--A supernaturally good man, who was crucified seventeen hundred years ago. "Heaven.--A delightful place, where everybody is happy, to which all respectable people will go, when they can't help it any longer. "Bible.--A good book read in church; intensely dry, as good books always are no concern of mine. "Salvation, peace, holiness, and the like.--Words in the Prayer-Book. "Faith, hope, love, etcetera.--Duties, which of course we all perform, and therefore don't need to trouble ourselves about them. "Prayer.--An incantation, to be repeated morning and evening, if you wish to avert ill luck during the day."