Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/64

60 well that one acre would produce what is to-day gathered from five.

But how shall we make you accept this law? If it were we who failed in obeying it, you could compel us to respect it; but if it is you who have withdrawn from its obligation, as the prodigal son of the Gospel left his father's house, who is able to recall you to your duty?

For we are, in your estimation, but as ciphers without units to give them value, as certain mighty ones have said of us.

And why would you abase us in this way? Is it only because we nourish you?

34. God could certainly have found some other way to fertilize the ground and to make it produce grain, but he has made this labor the penance for our sins. In other words, man could not help sinning, and must labor for his own support, and it is by this labor that God permits us to atone for our sins.

But you, neglecting this precious remedy, and burying it in a tomb, where the inhabitants of the earth may not find it, you decide that faith in God alone can save you.

Satan also believed in God, and obeyed him, as we see in the Book of Job, ii. 1–3.