You must evidently know much more about it than I do. When the men in my company did things I thought were wrong I used to jolly them a bit. I fancy I got better results than if I’d bashed them on the head with a sledge-hammer.
Vicar.
Sin began with the beginning of the human story and has continued through all its course. The motive of the divine redemption lies in the fact that men, though created for so lofty a purpose, have plunged so deep into sin and have so deeply defaced in themselves the image of God, that only the self-sacrificing act of God in redeeming them can raise them from ruin.
John.
I wish you’d been a company-commander and had seen how gaily a man can give his life for his friend.
Vicar.
But I know, my dear boy, I know. And do you think God will be unmindful of their sacrifice? I pray and believe that they will find mercy in His sight. I am sure He is more ready to pardon than to punish. After all, our Lord came to call sinners to repentance, and who should know better than the Ministers of God that to err is human, to forgive, divine?
[The piquet players have played their game with a certain distraction, and during the last few speeches have made no more pretence of playing at all. Mrs. Littlewood has listened attentively. Now she puts down her cards, gets up, and walks up to the Vicar.
Mrs. Littlewood.
And who is going to forgive God?