"I don't see how anybody can feel _sure_ they're going to be saved," the child said, with deep anxiety, one Sunday evening.
"Such thoughts are a temptation of the Evil One. 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'"
"But how do I know I'm not one of those He meant when He said, 'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?'"
"Because our Saviour distinctly says it of _that_ generation--centuries ago--of rebellious and unbelieving Jews."
She paused on the gravel walk and looked down at him. His little grave face was upturned in the twilight, his great eyes darkened by a world of care, but he looked so very fragile withal, such a tender little baby, that she felt her lips twitching at his anxiety lest he should be the viper of the Lord's denunciation. In another moment her unaccustomed eyes were strangely wet, and she walked on with averted face.
"I can't help wondering often," the child pursued, with evident heaviness of spirit, "how I shall manage to be a profitabubble servant."
"Well, not like the _un_profitabubble servant that had to be cast into outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing--"
"Nonsense! all that has nothing to do with you! He said, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me.'"
"You think, if I died now, I'd go to heaven?"
"Of course you would. _All_ little children go to heaven."
"All children who aren't too wicked," corrected Ethan, gravely, with misgiving.
"There is no such thing as a wicked child," interrupted his mentor, impatiently; then, catching herself up--"They may be foolish and wayward"--she looked down on him sternly--"and they may have to be severely punished on this earth, but they don't know enough to be wicked, not enough to deserve being shut out of heaven."
"I've heard Grandfather Tallmadge say somebody--I think it was some saint--had seen"--he lowered his voice--"had seen an infant in hell, a span long." He shuddered.
"Nonsense!" retorted Mrs. Gano, angrily. "No saint ever saw anything of the sort--nor no sane creature. It was that John Calvin."
"He didn't know what he was talking about. He had a black, despairing mind, and is the only human creature who ever had any valid excuse for being a Calvinist."