thought it took half so much to do me, as it would take for a person
like that Mrs. Thackeray."

"Sister Cooper," said brother Cross, rebukingly, "beware of the
temptation to vain-glory. Be not like the Pharisee, disdainful
of the publican. To be too well pleased with one's self is to be
displeasing to the Lord."

"Oh, Brother Cross, don't be thinking that I'm over and above
satisfied with the goodness that's in me. I know I'm not so good.
I have a great deal of evil; but then it seems to me there's a
difference in good and a difference in evil. One has most of one
and one has most of another. None of us have much good, and all of
us have a great deal of sin. God help me, for I need his help--I
have my own share; but as for that Mrs. Thackeray, she's as full
of wickedness as an an egg's full of meat."

"It is not the part of Christianity, Sister Cooper," said John Cross
mildly, "to look into our neighbors' accounts and make comparisons
between their doings and our own. We can only do so at great risk
of making a false reckoning. Besides, Sister Cooper, it is business
enough on our hands, if we see to our own short-comings. As for Mrs.
Thackeray, I have no doubt she's no better than the rest of us, and
we are all, as you said before, children of suffering, and prone
to sin as certain as that the sparks fly upward. We must only watch
and pray without ceasing, particularly that we may not deceive
ourselves with the most dangerous sin of being too sure of our own
works. The good deeds that we boast of so much in our earthly day
will shrivel and shrink up at the last account to so small a size
that the best of us, through shame and confusion, will be only too