Mary Liddiard | Page 3

Christian truth, and possessed of high spirits and an
independent will--a mere child of nature. It was evidently necessary to
treat her with the greatest caution to prevent her running away from us
and rejoining her former heathen associates.
Lisele, taking my hand, came and sat down at my mother's feet, and I
then put the question that she had asked me. "Yes, indeed, Lisele," said
my mother. "Jehovah not only sees all you do, and hears all you say,
but knows every thought which is passing through your mind, and if
you think anything that is wrong, and utter even a careless word, He is
grieved at it. He is so pure and holy that even the bright heavens are
not clean in His sight; and were He to treat us as we deserve, when we
indulged for a moment in an evil thought, or departed in the slightest
degree from the truth, He might justly punish us; but He is merciful,
kind, and long-suffering, and thus He allows sinners to continue in life,
to give them an opportunity of repenting and turning to Him."
"Then there would be no use for my father and all the chiefs and people
whom I know to lotu, for they have done over and over again all sorts
of things which you have told me Jehovah hates," remarked Lisele.
"My dear Lisele," said my mother, taking her hand, "Jehovah has said
in His holy Book, that He will receive all who turn from their sins and
come to Him in the way He has appointed, through faith in His dear
Son; and He also tells us that the blood of Jesus His Son `cleanseth
from all sin.' Likewise He says, `Though your sins be as scarlet they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be
as wool.' Believe this blessed promise yourself, Lisele, and tell your
father that though Jehovah knows all the murders he has committed,
and every crime he has been guilty of, if he will but turn from them and
trust to the perfect sacrifice which Christ offered up on Calvary when
He was punished, by dying that cruel death on the cross instead of us,

then all will be forgiven and blotted out of God's remembrance. `The
blood of Jesus Christ,' I repeat, `cleanseth from all sin.'"
The Indian girl stood with her eyes open, gazing at my mother, and lost
with astonishment at what she had heard.
"But surely we must do something to gain this great favour from God.
We must labour and toil for Him. We must pay Him all we have in
recompense for the bad things we have done, that have offended Him
so much," she exclaimed.
"No! we poor weak creatures have nothing to do. We could do nothing
to make amends for the ill we have done, to blot out our sins; and all
the wealth we possess could not recompense God, for all things are His.
But the debt has been paid for us by Jesus, he became our surety, and
when we go to Him, and trust to Him, and pray to Him, as He is now
seated at the right hand of God, He acts the part of our advocate, and
pleads for us with God, urging that He Himself paid the debt, and,
therefore, that we have nothing to pay and nothing to do. God in His
mercy has promised a free and full pardon to all who trust to Him.
`Pardon for sin is the gift of God,' and the King who makes the present
requires nothing in return but gratitude and love and obedience."
"I think I understand," said Lisele. "If my father was to conquer
another tribe who had offended him, and, instead of putting them to
death, was to pardon them all, and to give them a country rich in
bread-fruit trees and taro grounds, they would be bound to love and
serve Him, and give Him the best produce of their lands."
"Exactly," said my mother. "But Jehovah does not require the fruits of
the earth, for `all things are His.' What He wants is the willing
obedience of His creatures. He wishes them to obey His laws, to be
kind, and merciful, and courteous, and pitiful, to all their fellows, not
returning evil for evil, but good for evil, and endeavouring to make
known His name and His power and goodness to all those who do not
know it. That we may know His will, when Jesus Christ came into the
world to die for man, He set us the example we are to follow. Then as
our hearts are prone to evil, and Satan is ever going about seeking to

mislead us, He has sent