“I came to save thee. I have knelt to Nero for thy pardon. He will grant it upon one condition—that thou dost renounce thy false worship—”
“It is not false! It is true and everlasting.”
“Everlasting? Nothing is everlasting! There is no after-life; the end is here. Men come and go; they drink their little cup of woe or happiness, and then sleep—the sleep that knows no awakening.”
“Art thou sure of that? Ask thyself, are there no inward monitors that silently teach thee there is a life to come?”
“All men have wishes for a life to come, if it could better this.”
“It will better this, if this life be well lived. Hast thou lived well?”
“No; thou hast taught me that I never knew the shame of sin until I knew thy purity. Ah! whence comes thy wondrous grace?”
“If I have any grace it comes from Him who died on Calvary’s cross that grace might come to all.”
“Thou dost believe this?”
“I do believe it.”