Page:Thefourlastthings.djvu/65

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our false gods. We saw in them no virtues, only vile and vicious deeds. Against the promptings of conscience we imitated their vices, and hence we are damned. We cannot complain, or think ourselves wronged by the holy and just God, because we are amongst the reprobate. If only we had hearkened to the voice of our conscience, this would not have been our fate."

But what will those say who put Christ to death? Pilate, Caiphas, Annas, the high priest, as well as the Jews who cried: "Crucify Him! " and "His blood be upon us and upon our children," all who took part in the cruel, atrocious crime of crucifying their God, will at the sight of the sacred instruments of the Passion shriek aloud in despair and desire to be annihilated. Execrated and cursed even by the damned, they will stand there, branded as deicides, objects of abhorrence to the whole world.

It is not my intention to discuss what bad Christians, who have blasphemed the Son of God by word or deed, will feel at that time; for brevity’s sake I leave thee, reader, to meditate upon it for thyself. Only one thing I would ask of thee; reflect upon this, what thou wouldst say, what thou wouldst most deeply regret, if thou wert amongst the number of the damned, and didst then perceive that thou hadst been the cause of Christ's sufferings and hadst crucified Him by thy sins. Couldst thou now feel in thy heart something of the contrition