us, a Christian like Pascal accepted as a moral and religious phenomenon, adding the interrogatory whether God or the devil, whether good or evil, salvation or condemnation, rested therein. Oh the unfortunate interpreter! How he had to twist and worry his system !How he lied to twist and worry himself, in order to carry his point!
87
‘’The moral miracle.’’—Christianity, in the moralprovince, knows nothing but the miracle—the suddenchange of all valuations, the sudden laying aside of all habits, the sudden irresistible affection for new objects It describes this phenomenon as the opera-tion of God, and, calling it the act of regeneration, gives it a unique, incomparable value; everything which is generally called morality and has no reference to that miracle thereby becomes indifferent to the Christian ; nay, perhaps its a sensation of pleasure or pride, even an object of fear. The canon of virtue of the fulfilled law is established in the New Testament, but in such a way as to become the canon of the impossible virtue; these people who do not lose all moral aspirations in the face of such a canon are to learn to feel themselves further and further removed from their goal; they are to despair of virtue and, at Iast, throw themselves on the bosom of the merciful.A Christian's moral endeavour could still be made valuable, but only on condition that it ever remained an unsuccessful,
