"Take away God from Petrukha here, and he will show you!"
Shishlin's handsome face became stern. He touched his beard with fingers the nails of which were covered with dried lime, and said mysteriously:
"God dwells in every incarnate being; the conscience and all the inner life is God-given."
"And sin?"
"Sin comes from the flesh, from Satan! Sin is an external thing, like smallpox, and nothing more! He who thinks too much of sin, sins all the more. If you do not remember sin, you will not sin. Thoughts about sin are from Satan, the lord of the flesh, who suggests."
The bricklayer queried this.
"You are wrong there."
"I am not! God is sinless, and man is in His image and likeness. It is the image of God, the flesh, which sins, but His likeness cannot sin; it is a spirit."
He smiled triumphantly, but Petr growled:
"That is wrong."