As for the fear of Gehenna, again, after he dies: that is too dim
and distant; too unlike anything which he has seen in this life (now
that the tortures and Autos da fe of the middle age have
disappeared) to frighten him very severely, except in rare moments,
when his imagination is highly excited. And even then, he can--in
practice he does--look forward to 'making his peace with God' as it
is called, at last, and fulfilling Baalam's wish of dying the death
of the righteous, after living the life of the wicked. He knows
well, too, that when that day comes, he can find--alas! that it
should be so--priests and preachers in plenty, of some communion or
other, who will give him his viaticum, and bid him depart in peace
to that God, who has said that there is no peace to the wicked.
But terrible, truly terrible and heart searching for the wrongdoer
is the message--God does not curse thee: thou hast cursed thyself.
God will not go out of his way to punish thee: thou hast gone out
of his way, and thereby thou art punishing thyself, just as, by
abusing thy body, thou bringest a curse upon it; so by abusing thy
soul. God does not break his laws to punish drunkenness or
gluttony. The laws themselves, the laws of nature, the beneficent
laws of life, nutrition, growth, and health, they punish thee; and
kill by the very same means by which they make alive.
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