Page:Callimachus (Roswitha, Lambert 1923).djvu/40

30 crime!

ST. JOHN. But you ought not to grudge him the favour of God's mercy.

CALL. No, but a man proved guilty of the ruin of another does not deserve to be restored to life.

ST. JOHN. The law of our religion teaches us that a man must forgive his brother's trespass if he expects God to forgive his own -

AND. That is only fair.

ST. JOHN. For the only-begotten Son of God, the first-born of the Virgin, He who alone came into the world innocent, spotless, and without taint of original sin, actually found all mankind bowed down under the grievous weight of sin -

AND. It is true.

ST. JOHN. I suppose He could not find a single upright man, or a single man really deserving of mercy; and yet He despised no one. He shut no one out from the favour of His compassion; but He offered Himself on behalf of all, and laid down for us His own precious life.

AND. Yes, and if He had not been put to death without a cause, no one could rightfully have been saved from death.