“But are you not really happy, cousin?”

“Happy?  Ah yes, indeed!  Have I not everything to make me so? the best of husbands and fathers, five darling children; comparative youth, health, wealth that enables me to prove in my own sweet experience the truth of those words of the Lord Jesus, ’It is more blessed to give than to receive’; and the best of all” she added low and reverently, the soft eyes shining through glad tears, “His love and tender care surrounding me.  His strong arm to lean upon; His blood to wash away my sins.  His perfect righteousness put upon me.  These, cousin, are more than all the rest, and you and every one may have them if you will; for His own words are, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find.’  ’Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’”

“You give me a new view of religion,” he said after a moment’s surprised, thoughtful silence.  “I have been accustomed to look upon it as something suitable, perhaps desirable, for old age, and certainly very necessary for a death bed; but too great a restraint upon youthful pleasures.”

“Sinful pleasures must indeed be given up by those who would follow Christ; but they are like apples of Sodom,—­beautiful in appearance, but bitter and nauseous to the taste; while the joys that he gives are pure, sweet, abundant and satisfying.  ’Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’  ’They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.’  Ah, Cal, if one might safely die without the Christian’s faith and hope, I should still want them to sweeten life’s journey.”

Another thoughtful pause; then the young man said, frankly, “Cousin Elsie, I’m afraid I’m very stupid, but it’s a fact that I never have been quite able to understand exactly what it is to be a Christian, or how to become one.”

She considered a moment, her heart going up in silent prayer for help to make the matter plain to him, and for a blessing on her words; for well she knew that without the influence of the Holy Spirit they would avail nothing.

“To be a Christian,” she said, “is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving and resting upon him alone for salvation.  ’He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’  ’God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’  Do not these texts answer both your queries?  We have broken God’s holy law, but Jesus, the God man, has borne the penalty in our stead; ‘all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags’; we dare not appear before the King clothed in them; but Jesus offers to each of us the pure and spotless robe of his righteousness, and we have only to accept it as a free gift; we can have it on no other terms.  It is believe and be saved; look and live.”