“Peter’s sin was punished,” replied the Englishman gravely; “but it was Peter’s Lord, the Master whom Peter had denied, who bore the penalty for him. The blood that flowed from the Saviour’s wounded side can wash away all sin, whether of thought or word or deed, the sin of falsehood amongst the rest. But those who would be forgiven like Peter, must, like Peter, believe and love. When God’s Spirit comes into the heart, He comes to drive away evil from it; the unjust becomes just, and the proud becomes meek, and the lips that often were stained with falsehood learn the language of heaven—the language of truth.”
XI.
Stories on the Ten Commandments.
I.—THE BROKEN BRIDGE.
Hossein said to his aged grandfather Abbas, “O grandfather, wherefore are you reading the Gospel?”
Abbas made answer, “I read it, my son, to find the way to heaven.”
Hossein, smiling, said, “The way is plain enough. Worship but the one true God, and keep the Commandments.”[46]
The man whose hair was silvered with age made reply: “Hossein, the Commandments are as a bridge of ten arches, by which the soul might once have passed over the flood of God’s wrath, and have reached heaven, but that the bridge has been shattered. There is not one amongst us that hath not broken the Commandments again and again.”