Page:Anecdotescatechi00spiruoft.djvu/117



A certain infidel  based  his  denial  of  the  existence of God  on  the  fact  that  if  God  existed  He  would  not delay in  punishing  the  world’s  great  sinners. “Even my poor  sense  of  justice  would  demand  vengeance on their  guilty  heads,  and  that,  too,  immediately,” he said  in  arguing  with  a Christian  friend; “ and  if your  God  exists,  surely  His  sense  of  justice  ought  to be  keener  than  mine.”  “Yes,”  his  friend  rejoined, “but you  and  I are  in  a hurry  because  we  feel  that time — a short  space  of  time  — is  the  limit  of  our  existence, but  God  can  afford  to  take  His  time  in  the exercise of  both  His  justice  and  His  mercy,  because the measure  of  His  being  is  eternity.”

Q.  How could  they  be  saved  who  lived  before  the Son  of  God  became  man?

A.  They who  lived  before  the  Son  of  God  became man  could  be  saved  by  believing  in  a Redeemer  to come,  and  by  keeping  the  Commandments,

Moses, while  still  with  the  Israelites  in  the  desert, sent two  spies  to  view  the  Promised  Land. On their return from  their  tour  of  investigation,  they  brought back in  proof  of  the  land’s  richness  an  immense bunch of  grapes  Strung  on  a pole  and  so  carried  between them,  one  preceding,  the  other  following. That cluster  of  grapes  represents  Christ  on  the cross; and  he  that  went  before  personifies  the saints of  old,  and  he  that  followed  typifies  those  who