272 POSED BY A SAVAGE.

deal to him of the power of God; his omnipotence, his dreadful
aversion to sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of
iniquity ; how, as he had made us all, he could destroy us and all
the world in a moment; and he listened with great seriousness to
me all the while.

After this I had been telling him how the devil was God’s
enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill to
defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of
Christ in the world, and the like. ‘‘ Well,” says Friday; “ but
you say God is so strong, so great, is he not much strong, much
might as the devil?’ ‘Yes, yes,” says I, “ Friday, God is
stronger than the devil, God is above the devil, and therefore we
pray to God to tread him down under our feet, and enable us to
resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts.” “ But,” says
he again, “if God much strong, much might as the devil, why God
no kill the devil, so make him no more do wicked?”

I was strangely surprised at his question; and, after all, though
I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill
enough qualified for a casuist, or a solver of difficulties. And at
first I could not tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him,
and asked him what he said. But he was too earnest for an
answer to forget his question; so that he repeated it in the very
same broken words as above. By this time I had recovered my-
self a little, and I said, “ God will at last punish him severely ; he
is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless
pit to dwell with everlasting fire.’ This did not satisfy Friday ;
but he returns upon me, repeating my words, “ ‘ Reserve—at last,’
me not understand. But why not kill the devil now, not kill
great ago?” ‘“ You may as well ask me,” said I, “why God does -
not kill you and me when we do wicked things here that offend
him. We are preserved to repent and be pardoned.” He muses
a while at this. ‘Well, well,” says he, mighty affectionately,
‘that well; so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God
pardon all.” Here I was run down again by him to the last
degree; and it was a testimony to me how the mere notions of
nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the know-
ledge of a God, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme