"Why afraid, mother? I'm sure you've been a member of a church these
many years, and a faithful attendant on its services, and you have
been kind to the poor and such a dear mother," said Vida, caressing
her. "I don't think you need be afraid."

"O child, that will not stand in the great day. Don't mention
anything I've done or been, I beg you," moaned the poor mother. "I've
been nothing but a miserable worldling. Now I'm almost through with
it all, and I've no peace or comfort. It's all dark, dark. O what
shall I do?"

"Let me send for Dr. Hines," said Vida.

"O I cannot talk to him. He's a stranger; and I'm so weak. What must
I do, O what?"

Vida had been a member of the same church. But now she sat wrapped in
gloom, feeling powerless to help, yet longing to comfort her dying
mother. In the midst of her sad thoughts as she sat watching, while
gentle slumber had stolen for a moment over the mother, she
remembered the words of a text she had heard her husband preach from,
"What must I do to be saved?" The sermon was all gone.

"If it asks that question in the Bible, it must answer it," she
thought. So finding a Bible, she sat down to search for the old
answer to the old question.

"Reading the Bible, dear?" said her mother, opening her eyes.