"Who of us does not long for forgiveness and blessedness? Or who would continue to err after confession?
"Confess, then, and will to look within. It is never too late to do so.
"We are guilty, my poor friends: confess it and there will be forgiveness, but not without knowledge thereof. The least among you can understand this, if only he will.
"It was not the Father who willed that you should be poor, and rich—the poor laboring, the rich idling. It would be abominable blasphemy to say that. Believe it not. Shun as defiling those who would thus delude you.
"Not by divine ordering, but through human mismanagement, wickedness, and foolishness, and the wandering away from the Father's will, have poverty and riches come into this human world.
"Acknowledge it; for, truly, there will be no forgiveness for those who reject the Father's mercy."
Here Dominie Kraalboom beckoned to the sexton and the precentor, who were standing together whispering with considerable vehemence, casting furious looks at the speaker. The sexton coughed and mounted the pulpit. The dominie exchanged a few words with him, and, with a resigned air, half-closed eyes, and a face as severe as possible, went to resume his seat. The sexton strode resolutely through the church, and left the building, all eyes following him in suspense.
Imperturbably, Markus proceeded:
"My poor friends, did ever an artist create a grand masterpiece, and desire that no one should admire it?
"Would the Father, then, have made the mountains, seas, and flowers, gold and jewels, and have desired that we should despise and reject them all?