dliness, that we may be counted worthy to
escape the wrath to come, and to be ranged on the right hand of the Son
of God? For this is the station of the righteous: but to sinners is
allotted the station of misery on the left. Then shall the Lord call
the righteous 'Blessed,' and shall lead them into his everlasting
kingdom. But, as for sinners, with anger and curse he will banish them
from his serene and gentle countenance the bitterest and hardest lot of
all and will send them away into everlasting punishment."

IX.

Ioasaph said unto him, "Great and marvellous, sir, are the things
whereof thou tellest me, fearful and terrible, if indeed these things
be so, and, if there be after death and dissolution into dust and
ashes, a resurrection and re-birth, and rewards and punishments for the
deeds done during life. But what is the proof thereof? And how have
ye come to learn that which ye have not seen, that ye have so
steadfastly and undoubtingly believed it? As for things that have
already been done and made manifest in deed, though ye saw them not,
yet have ye heard them from the writers of history. But, when it is of
the future that ye preach tidings of such vast import, how have ye made
your conviction on these matters sure?"

Quoth Barlaam, "From the past I gain certainty about the future; for
they that preached the Gospel, without erring from the truth, but
establishing their sayings by signs and wonders and divers miracles,
themselves also spake of the future. So, as in the one case they
taught us nothing amiss or false, but made all that they said and did
to shine clearer than the sun, so also in the other matter they gave us
true doctrine, even that which our Lord and Master Jesus Christ himself
confirmed both by word and deed. 'Verily,' he spake, 'I say unto you,
the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live:' and again,
'The hour cometh when the dead shall hear his voice, and shall come
forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they
that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.' And again he
said concerning the resurrection of the dead, 'Have ye not read that
which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead
but of the living.' 'For as the tares are gathered and burned in the
fire, so shall