SIMPLE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 479

all things, and that can destroy all that he has made; that he
rewards the good, and punishes the bad; and that we are to be
judged by him at last for all we do here. You are not so ignorant
but even Nature itself will teach you that all this is true; and I
am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it yourself.”

“'That’s true, sir,” said Atkins; ‘“ but with what face can I say
anything to my wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately
it cannot be true?”

“Not true!” said I; ‘‘what do you mean by that?” ‘Why,
sir,” said he, ‘she will tell me it cannot be true that this God I
shall tell her of can be just, or can punish or reward, since I am
not punished and sent to the devil, that have been such a wicked
creature as she knows I have been, even to her and to everybody else;
and that I should be suffered to live that have been always acting
so contrary to what I must tell her is good, and to what I ought
to have done?”

“ Why, truly, Atkins,” said I, ‘I am afraid thou speakest too
much truth.” And with that I let the clergyman know what
Atkins had said, for he was impatient to know. ‘Oh,’ said the
priest, “‘ tell him there is one thing will make him the best minister
in the world to his wife, and that is repentance; for none teach
repentance like true penitents. He wants nothing but to repent,
and then he will be so much the better qualified to instruct his
wife. He will then be able to tell her that there is not only a
God, and that he is the just Rewarder of good and evil, but that
he is a merciful Being, and with infinite goodness and longsuffering
forbears to: punish those that offend, waiting to be gracious, and
willing not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should return
and live: that he oftentimes suffers wicked men to go on a long
time, and even reserves damnation to the general day of retribution:
that it is a clear evidence of God, and of a future state, that right-
eous men receive not their reward, nor wicked men their punish-
ment, until they come into another world ;—and this will lead him
to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection and of the last
judgment. Let him but repent for himself, he will be an excellent
preacher of repentance to his wife.”

I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the

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