The door opened, but so softly that the sound was lost in his bitter sobbing, then a hand rested lightly, tenderly upon his bowed head, and a gentle, pitying voice said, “My poor, dear boy, my heart bleeds for you.”

“O Grandma Elsie!” he burst out, “can you say that to such a wicked fellow as I am?”

“Did not Jesus weep with compassion over the sinners of Jerusalem, many of whom were even then plotting His death?  And, Maxie, He pities you in your fallen estate, and is ready to forgive you the moment you turn to Him with grief and hatred of your sin and an earnest desire to forsake it, and to give yourself to His service.”

“Oh, I do, I do hate it!” he cried out with vehemence.  “I didn’t mean ever to swear any more, and I feel as if I’d rather cut off my right hand than to do it again!  But oh, how can I ask Him to forgive me, when He did once, and I’ve gone and done the same wicked thing again, just as if I hadn’t been really sorry at all, though I was sure I was!  Grandma Elsie, what shall I do?”

“’Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.’

“’He is the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.’

“‘His name is Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.’  He says, ‘Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’  ’O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.’

“’Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’

“’I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’”

“Oh, He is very good to say that!” sobbed the penitent boy.  “But won’t you ask Him to forgive me, Grandma Elsie?”

“Yes, Max, but you must pray, too, for yourself; confess your sins to Him, and ask Him to blot them out and remember them no more against you, because Jesus has suffered their penalty in your stead.  Shall we kneel down now and ask Him?”

She stayed with him some time longer, talking in tender, motherly fashion; not extenuating his guilt, but speaking of the blood that cleanseth from all sin, the love and tender compassion of Jesus, His willingness and ability to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.

Warning him, too, of the danger from evil associates and from indulgence in the vice of gambling.

Then she told him he was not too young to begin to lead a Christian life, and urged him to do so without a moment’s delay.

“I think I do want to be a Christian, Grandma Elsie,” he said, “if I only knew just how.”

“It is to leave the service of Satan for that of the Lord Jesus Christ,” she said.  “It is to give yourself body and soul, at once and forever, to Jesus, trusting in Him alone for salvation from sin and eternal death.