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3894 SKETCHES.
although I am not his real mother ; that I would love him
if he only would let me; but—JI have told him this
already more than once. What shall I do? It is Christ-
mas Eve, and then one ought not to part in unkindness !”
In a low voice she called out: “ Anders, are you awake ?”
But Anders did not answer; he was perfectly still and
silent. And so she thought: “ He has fallen asleep.”
And she remained, therefore, silent, but turned her
thoughts to God, praying that he might change the boy’s
dissatisfied and bitter mind. And so, without knowing it,
she followed the advice of the pious Thomas 4 Kempis,
when he says: —
“When you have reproached any body for a fault once
or twice, and if he then does not mend, then say nothing
more, but leave it in God’s hands.”
And this is a wise and a pious advice. For you do not ©
make any one better by continually scolding and railing.
But when nothing else avails, prayer will do it.
Believe me, children, prayer will help in one way or
other, and although it sometimes feels and seems to him
who prays as if God did not hear his prayers, yet he will,
in good time, find that the Lord is faithful, and that “ He
who prays will be answered, and he who seeks will find.”
For it is with our prayers as with the vapors which rise out
of the earth; they return to it again as fertilizing rain.
And if the hearing of our prayers sometimes does not
manifest itself in the way you expect, you will still find,
sooner or later, that it does come; that the load which you
have prayed might be taken away from you, has been re-
moved; that the blessing which you have prayed for has
been given to you, and that you have got much miore
(although, perhaps, in another way) than you have prayed
for or even dared to think of. Yes, children, hold fast to
prayer ; it is, when all comes round, the only thing that is
sufficient on this earth ; it is the most wonderful and also
the most effective and powerful in man’s life. For it is like
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