"Is it nothing to be so weak, disheartened, and debased that you lie prostrate in the mire of your own evil nature, as it were, and with no power to rise?" he asked bitterly.
"That is sad indeed."
"Well, that's just my condition--or I fear it is, though your coming has brought a gleam of hope. Mrs. Arnot," he continued passionately, "I don't know how to be different; I don't feel capable of making any persistent and successful effort. I feel that I have lost all moral force and courage. The odds are too great. I can't get up again."
"Perhaps you cannot, Egbert," said Mrs. Arnot very gravely; "it would seem that some never do--"
He buried his face in his hands and groaned.
"You have, indeed, a difficult problem to solve, and, looking at it from your point of view, I do not wonder that it seems impossible."
"Cannot you, then, give me any hope?"
"No, Egbert; I cannot. It is not in my power to make you a good man. You know that I would do so if I could."
"Would to God I had never lived, then," he exclaimed, desperately.
"Can you offer God no better prayer than that? Will you try to be calm, and listen patiently to me for a few moments? When I said I could not give you hope--I could not make you a good man--I expressed one of my strongest convictions. But I have not said, Egbert, that there is no hope, no chance, for you. On the contrary, there is abundant hope--yes, absolute certainty--of your achieving a noble character, if you will set about it in the right way. But as one of the first and indispensable conditions of success, I wish you to realize that the task is too great for you alone; too great with my help; too great if the world that seems so hostile should unite to help you; and yet neither I nor all the world could prevent your success if you went to the right and true source of help. Why have you forgotten God in your emergency? Why are you looking solely to yourself and to another weak fellow-creature like yourself?"
"You are in no respect like me, Mrs. Arnot, and it seems profanation even to suggest the thought."
"I have the same nature. I struggled vainly and almost hopelessly against my peculiar weaknesses and temptations and sorrows until I heard God saying, 'Come, my child, let us work together. It is my will you should do all you can yourself, and what you cannot do I will do for you.' Since that time I have often had to struggle hard, but never vainly. There have been seasons when my burdens grew so heavy that I was ready to faint; but after appealing to my heavenly Father, as a little child might cry for help, the crushing weight would pass away, and I became able to go on my way relieved and hopeful."