Page images
PDF
EPUB

GOD IS INFINITELY GOOD.

"I hope for a happy immortality. I well know that I have sometimes done evil, for no one can say that he is exempt, not even the most holy; but I believe that, after satisfying Divine justice by an abode in purgatory, my purified soul will pass into paradise. Behold the mercy of my God, who wills not the condemnation of sinners, but has provided a method for the expiation of their sins, by a few ages of suffering. What goodness, thus to open a door into heaven to those who are yet unworthy when quitting this earth! Oh, yes! God is good: Deus bonus est et benignitas ejus manet in sæcula sæculorum."

"I have no reply to your Latin," said the man forty years of age, "but I reject your purgatory. My God is better than yours; he neither sends me to purgatory, nor condemns me to annihilation. My God opens his heaven to me at the moment of death, and gives me happiness without mixture, without delay, and without tears. You must admit that, according to my ideas, God is much more merciful than you represent him to be."

"Monsieur is right," interrupted the admirer of J. J. Rousseau ; "God is too good to punish all our peccadilloes. He knows our weakness; he is aware of our constitution. If God

punished all the guilty, no one would escape. No doubt an

honest man ought not to kill nor to steal, but who has not his weaknesses? If God has committed to us so many talents, he does not prohibit us from using them; if he has implanted in our hearts the love of pleasure, we are not called upon to repress it; and if we sometimes misuse these talents, and abuse these pleasures, will not God pardon us? Has he not made us what we are? Yes, God is good, and provided we do no wrong to any one, he will pardon us. As to the very wicked, undoubtedly God will not treat them as he will us; there is a limit to everything. In fine, the goodness of God is great, and as his heaven is great also, it will not cost him much to give us a place there, notwithstanding some weaknesses inseparable from our humanity."

"According to you," rejoined my neighbour, "God will

pardon the great majority of men, because they are guilty only of very excusable faults; but he will undoubtedly condemn those great criminals who have polluted the earth by their frightful crimes. However, for my part, I have a more enlarged idea of the goodness of God. I believe that he will pardon, not only men guilty of slight faults, but even the greatest criminals. I believe that he will open his heaven at last to the unhappy beings who fill our prisons and convict establishments, as well as to those who have never either committed murder or theft. You see that my God has greater goodness than yours."

This excess of goodness appeared to me to surprise the three travellers who had already spoken, when the fourth began to speak. I thought he was about to set a limit to this great mercy, but was much astonished to hear him say, "Gentlemen, I am of the same opinion; it is an absurdity to think that God has created men to be lost. Rather than to have given life to creatures who would be condemned for their crimes, God, who foresaw their conduct, would, in that case, have been wiser not to have given them existence. The god who should have created a single man to burn him would be a barbarous god. For my part, I assign no limits to the goodness of God; I believe in a god who will pardon us all because he wills the happiness of all. I do not think," said he, looking at my neighbour, "that your God can have more liberality than mine."

"Here you deceive yourself, sir; my God, just as yours, wills the pardon of all men; but herein is the difference between you and me. You say, God will pardon us after death; and I say, he pardons us to-day, at once. So that, at the moment I am speaking, I believe that pardon is assured to me, and heaven obtained. Thus, you see that my God is more merciful than your four gods together-no purgatory, no punishment for slight faults, no condemnation for great crimes, not even a pardon deferred until after death, but an absolute pardon, and the gift of eternal life and happiness to all, and that pardon accorded now, at the moment I am speaking." "Sir," said the tutor, in a serious tone, "you are free to

form what opinion you please of God, but the subject under inquiry is, not to ascertain which is the god of your imagination, but which is the God of truth."

"That is just, sir," said I, "I thank you for your observation. However, before replying, allow me to ask a question of each of you. Would you feel joy or grief to know that God was really such as you have described him?"

66

Joy," said all the voices at once.

"Well, and does it not rest with you, Monsieur l'Instituteur,* to prove that such is the truth?"

"Such is the teaching of the Church and our Holy Scriptures." "What do you say, gentlemen," said I, addressing the others.

"For my part," said one of the other travellers, "I attach very little importance to the teaching of the Church and the Holy Scriptures, but I confess that if Christianity, which has invented purgatory and hell, teaches the absolute and immediate pardon of all men, it would much surprise me, and I should be greatly tempted to examine those Scriptures more closely." "And I," said the second.

"And I also," said the third.

"So that, gentlemen, you will accept my God, infinitely good, offering immediate pardon, if such is the teaching of Christianity?"

[blocks in formation]

"Well, know, then, that all I have said to you, far from being invented by my imagination, is drawn from the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, the word of God."

"Impossible! you jest !"

"No, gentlemen, I speak seriously, very seriously. That God who offers you complete pardon for all your sins, who offers it to you at once; that God who wishes to give you heaven at once, without your having merited it, is the Eternal, the God of the Bible, the true God. While infinitely holy, abhorring sin and determined to punish it, yet he has, in great mercy and compassion towards sinful men, provided a Saviour,

*The tutor.

THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY, 27, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON,

His own Son, who became a willing sacrifice for the sins of mankind.* In order that you may not rely on my word, I will read to you the declaration of the Bible itself, without altering one word.”

Here he drew from his pocket a small bible. "First," said he, "observe the history of the woman of immoral life, who, until the day that she came and wept at the feet of Jesus, had lived in debauchery and impurity. Jesus pardoned her instantly. He did not say, Thou shalt be pardoned at thy death; thou shalt be pardoned in twenty, ten, or five years, but he said, Thou art already pardoned. Hear the words of our Saviour, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.'+

[ocr errors]

"Observe next the history of Zacchæus the publican, who had enriched himself by plunder. Jesus did not say to him, Thou shalt be ten, twenty, thirty years in purgatory, and after that I will give thee salvation, but he said, ' To-day I must abide at thy house.'‡

6

6

"Behold the history of that thief on the cross on the right of Jesus. He had lived by plunder and murder, he was condemned and punished for great crimes; this he acknowledged, for he said to his companion, who railed on Jesus, 'Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation ? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds.' And when, turning himself towards the Son of God, he said to Him, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,' Jesus did not reply, There is pardon only for slight sins; thy enormous crimes ought to be punished. He did not even put off the pardon which he offered to him to a century, to a year, or to many days; no; but He said to him, 'To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' But do you ask, gentlemen, for positive declaration as to a salvation complete, free, immediate, and offered to all? They are found in every page. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.' 'He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall

* 1 Pet. ii. 24. Luke vii. 50. Luke xix. 5. § Luke xxiii. 40, &c.

Rom. viii. 1.

« EelmineJätka »