"Why, it do seem a bit 'ard to the likes o' we, brother, but then we only see as through a glass darkly. God is a just God, a jealous God and a God o' Vengeance; 't is in the Book—"
"Then this is not Christ's Heavenly Father, but Jehovah, the blood-spattered deity of the Jews, a God of battles, of sacrifices and death, a God pitiless and without mercy. But man's soul, being conceived of the Infinite Mind, may never utterly perish even though corrupt with sin or debased by ignorance, for even then that divine Spark which is the very life of the soul shall sooner or later grow to a flame, burning up the evil, lighting the gloom of ignorance until in course of time, years, ages, or aeons, the soul purified and perfected shall win back to the God whence it came!"
For a full minute after I had ended Jessamy Todd was silent, staring from me to the cloudless sky and back again with a look of growing perplexity; at length he spoke:
"You've seen better days, brother, I'm thinking."
"No, indeed," I answered, "never so good as these."
"I'm likewise thinkin' as your speech and talk don't rightly match your rig-out, brother."
"Which, on the whole, is just as well," I answered.
"And you've read and learned a lot from books, brother."
"But you have read a better book, friend Todd, and much more of it."
"Ah, you mean this, brother?" said he, taking out a small, well-worn
Bible.