These meetings were also very serious, and calculated to make a lasting
impression on the tender minds of the children. At the close of one, the
mother who had been telling the children of heaven, turned to Mary Jane,
and said, "My dear child, if you should die now, do you think you should
go to heaven?" "I don't know, mother," was her thoughtful reply;
"sometimes I think I am a good girl, and that God loves me, and that I
shall certainly go to heaven. But sometimes I am naughty. J---- teazes
me, and makes me unthread my needle, and then I feel angry; and I _know_
God does not love me _then_. I don't know, mother. I am afraid I should
not go to heaven." Then encouraging herself, she added in a sweet
confiding manner, "I hope I shall go there; don't you hope so too,
mother?"

Oh, who of our fallen race would ever see heaven, if sinless perfection
only, were to be the ground of our admittance there? True, we must be
free from sin, before we can enter that holy place; but this will be,
because God "hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him."[A]

How much of the great doctrine of Justification by Faith in Christ this
little girl could comprehend, would be very difficult to tell. But, that
she regarded him as the medium through which she must receive every
blessing, there could be no doubt. He died that she might live; live in
the favor and friendship of God here, and live forever in his presence
hereafter.

Since commencing this simple narrative, I have regretted that more of
her sweet thoughts respecting Jesus and heaven could not be recalled.
Every thing relating to the soul, to its preparation for another and
better state of existence; to the enjoyments and employments of the