'You ask me,' he answered solemnly, after a pause, 'what no man
should ask even when he communes with his own soul in the stillness
of night. The Gospel is preached to all; nowhere in the word of God
are any forbidden to hear it, or, hearing, to accept its solace.
Think not upon that dark mystery, which even to the understandings
God has most enlightened shows but as a formless dread. The sinner
shall not brood upon his sin, save to abhor it. Shall he who repents
darken repentance with a questioning of God's mercy? Then indeed
were there no such thing as turning from wrong to righteousness.'
'When I sent you that book,' he resumed, after observing the relief
that came to Basil's face, 'I had in mind only its salutary teaching
for such as live too much in man's world, and especially for those
who, priding themselves upon the name of Roman, are little given to
reflection upon all the evil Rome has wrought. Had I known what lay
upon your conscience, I should have withheld from you everything but
Holy Writ.'
'My man, Deodatus, had not spoken?' asked Basil.
'Concerning you, not a word.
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