hildren pursue and
with weeping eyes beseech you to return, listen not. It is the
temptation of the evil one. Fly to the desert and save your soul."
Think of such a soul being worth saving. While I live I propose to
stand by the folks.

Here there is another condition of salvation. I find it in the 25th
chapter: "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 'Come,
ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was a hungered and ye gave Me meat; I
was thirsty and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger and ye took Me in;
naked and ye clothed Me; and I was sick and ye visited Me; and I was in
prison, and ye came unto me." Good! And I tell you tonight that God
will not punish with eternal thirst the man who has put the cup of cold
water to the lips of his neighbor. God will not allow to live in
eternal nakedness of pain the man who has clothed others.

For instance, here is a shipwreck, and here is some brave sailor stands
aside and allows a woman whom he never saw before to take his place in
the boat, and he stands there, grand and serene as the wide sea, and he
goes down. Do you tell me there is any God who will push the life-boat
from the shore of eternal life, when that man wishes to step in? Do
you tell me that God can be unpitying to the pitiful, that He can be
unforgiving to the forgiving? I deny it; and from the aspersions of
the pulpit I seek to rescue the reputation of the Deity.

Now, I have read you everything in Matthew on the subject of salvation.
That is all there is. Not one word about believing anything. It is
the gospel of deed, the gospel of charity, the gospel of self-denial;
and if only that gospel had been preached, persecution never would have
shed one drop of blood. Not one. Now, according to the testimony,
Matthew was well acquainted with Christ. According to the testimony,
he had been with Him, and His companion for years, and if it was
necessary to believe anything in order to get to heaven, Matthew should
have told us. But he forgot it. Or he didn't believe it. Or he never
heard of it. You can take your choice.

The next is Mark. Now let us see what he says. And for the purpose of
this lecture it is sufficient for me to say that Mark agrees,
substantially, with Matthew, that God will be merciful to the merciful;
that He will be kind to the kind that He will pity the pitying. And it
is precisely, or substantially, t