Titus 1:12-13 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.… A young clergyman came to the house of his sister, and found quite a company round the table — among them a talkative military gentle man, who rather freely flavoured his wit with perverted Bible quotations and anti-Christian innuendos. A bantering remark about God that amounted to no less than a parade of his atheism aroused the hostess at last. "You seem to forget that my brother here is a minister of the gospel," she said. "Oh!" quoth the unabashed officer, "my clerical friend and I understand each other"; and turning to the young man, with patronising impudence he asked, "Is it not so, sir? Your office requires you to tell the old story, which for the ignorant may do very well to believe, but as a man of culture you yourself cannot put faith in these worn-out doctrines." The clergyman eyed his questioner a minute, and then said, "Sir, before answering your question, I must ask you three. You are an atheist. Such people have always been in the world. One class of these are thinkers who have speculated and groped till they have fallen into despair, and said, 'There is no God.' Do you belong to that class?" "No," laughed the officer; "thinking is not to my taste. I am no philosopher." "Another class are those who speak frivolously of God merely because they learned to do it where such talk was the fashion. Are you one of them? No, sir," said the officer, slightly reddening; "I am not a blind follower of others." "There is but one more class of atheists," quietly continued the minister — "those who have wallowed in sin till they must either expect the horrors of remorse or kill their conscience; and, as the shortest way to get rid of it, they declare that there is no God." This time the clergyman did not utter his question; but the eyes of the whole company, turned on the confused scoffer, made both question and answer needless. Parallel Verses KJV: One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. |
    |