"Because you were taught falsely about Him before you desired to know Him."
"Do you desire to know God?" said Andrew.
"Then we are where we were, and I say no more."
"I can not help it. I must let you alone to believe about God what you can. You will not be blamed for not believing what you can not."
"Do you mean that God never punishes any one for what He can not help?"
"I will not attempt to prove it. If you are content to think He does, if it do not trouble you that your God should be unjust, go on thinking so until you are made miserable by it, then I will pour out my heart to deliver you."
She was struck, not with any truth in what he said, but with the evident truthfulness of the man himself. Right or wrong, there was that about him--a certain radiance of conviction--which certainly was not about Mr. Rackstraw.
"The things that can be shaken," said Andrew, as if thinking with himself, "may last for a time, but they will at length be shaken to pieces, that the things which can not be shaken may show what they are. Whatever we call religion will vanish when we see God face to face."
For awhile they went brushing through the heather in silence.
"May I ask you one question, Mr. Ingram?" said Alexa.
"Surely, ma'am! Ask me anything you like."
"If I am at liberty to answer you I will."
"What do you mean by being at liberty? Are you under any vow?"
"I am under the law of love. I am bound to do nothing to hurt. An answer that would do you no good I will not give."
"How do you know what will or will not do me good?"
"Is it true, then, that you believe God gives you whatever you ask?"
"I have never asked anything of Him that He did not give me."
"Would you mind telling me anything you have asked of Him?"
"I have never yet required to ask anything not included in the prayer, 'Thy will be done.'"
"That will be done without your praying for it."
"Pardon me; I do not believe it will be done, to all eternity, without my praying for it. Where first am I accountable that His will should be done? Is it not in myself? How is His will to be done in me without my willing it? Does He not want me to love what He loves?--to be like Himself?--to do His will with the glad effort of my will?--in a word, to will what He wills? And when I find I can not, what am I to do but pray for help? I pray, and He helps me."