So one lies, another
cheats, another oppresses, another neglects his plainest social duties,
another defiles himself with base political or religious intrigues,
another breaks the seventh commandment, or, indeed, any and every one of
the commandments which he finds troublesome. And when one asks in
astonishment--You call yourselves Christians? You believe in God, and
the Bible, and Christianity? Do you not think that God will punish YOU
for all this? Do you not hear from the psalmists, and prophets, and
apostles, of a God who judges and punishes such generations as this? Of
a wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
of men, who, like you, hold down the truth in unrighteousness, knowing
what is right and yet doing what is wrong? Then they answer, at least in
their hearts, Oh dear no! God does not govern men now, or judge men now.
He only did so, our preachers tell us, under the old Jewish dispensation;
and such words as you quote from our Lord, or St Paul, have only to do
with the day of judgment, and the next life, and we have made it all
right for the next life.
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