beginning. God says, `There is none that
doeth good, no not one,' `The soul that sinneth shall surely die.' What
does dat mean? Not, surely, that if you sinner He let you get into
heaven. I ask you, captain, whether you are a sinner, or whether you
pure and holy, and trust to Christ, and love Christ, and fit to go and
live for ever and ever in the pure and holy heaven with Him?
Understand, I do not ask whether you are a great sinner in your own
sight, but whether you have ever committed any sins; and remember, God
says, `the soul that sinneth,' not only the soul that is a great
sinner."

The captain looked much annoyed. "Yes, of course, I have committed some
sins; but I don't see why God has any right to charge them against me."

"God made this world, and all things that are therein. God rules this
world, and God made His laws, and He says they are just and right, and
God says, `The soul that sinneth shall surely die,'" answered Paul,
solemnly. "Captain understand, it is not I who say that. God says it.
But though God is a God of justice He is full of love and mercy, and He
has therefore formed a plan for the benefit of sinning men, by which
man's sins can be washed away, by which His justice will be satisfied,
His love and mercy shown. He has allowed another to be punished instead
of the sinner," Paul continued, explaining to the captain God's plan of
salvation much in the same terms as he had already explained it to me.

"I never understood that matter before," said the captain. "But still I
do not see how God can expect us to be as good as you say."

"Massa Captain, I do not say dat God expect us to be good; but still He
has a right to demand that we should be good. He made man pure and holy
and upright, and He gave him free will to act as he chose; but man
disobeyed God and went away from Him, and forgot Him, and so God has the
right to punish man. But den God is full of love and mercy, and He does
not want to punish him, but wants him to come back to Him, and so He has
sent His message to man to tell him how he may do that. Now as man
cannot be good and pure and holy and do nothing but good, but, on the
contrary, does much harm, he must either accept God's plan of salvation,
or be punished. You have heard, captain, about the thief on the cross,
even when he was dying he put faith in Jesus, and Jesus told him that he
should be that night with Him in paradise. So you see, captain, there
is hope for