16 THE HISTORY OF

sayest in thine heart, Tam, and none else beside
me: evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not
know from whence it riseth; and mischief shall
fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to put it
off; and desolation shall come upon thee sud-
denly, which thou shalt not know. (Isaiah
xlvii, 8, 11.)

And I pray you, my daughters, do not de-
ceive yourselves, nor suppose, because you see
many bad women around you, that God will
spare them for their numbers: the city of So-
dom, in which there were not ten good men,
was burnt with fire from heaven; so, were there
not ten good girls in the town or village in
which you live, the multitude of the sinners
would not save them. All bad people will
have their portion in the lake which burns
with brimstone and fire.

Nor must you hope that you will be saved
by being secret in your crimes, for night is not
dark with God. He knows even all your
thoughts; and if we suffer our minds to be
filled with evil thoughts, he will not receive us
into heaven when we die.

Attend, therefore, my daughters, to what an
old man says, who has studied God’s book from
his cradle to his old age; and all of you try to
equal Susan Gray, that you may with her
enter into the joy of your Lord.

But now let me proceed to tell you her
story, as I heard it from herself.