'  The  damned  shall  be  tormented  in  the  presence  of
the  holy  angels,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb,  and
so  will  they  be  tormented  also  in  the  presence  of  the
glorified  saints.  Hereby  the  saints  will  be  made
more  sensible  how  great  their  salvation  is.  The  view
of  the  misery  of  the  damned,  will  double  the  ardor  of
the  lore  and  gratitude  of  the  saints  in  heaven  !

"  Here  all  judges  have  a  mixture  of  mercy  ,•  but  the
wrath  of  God  will  be  poured  out  upon  the  wicked
without  mixture.'

Apart  from  all  other  considerations,  are  not  such
dogmas  shocking  to  the  moral  sense,  especially  in  the
selfishness  which  they  unconsciously  inculcate?  This
same  cruel  theology  breathes  in  some  of  the  old  painters
and  casts  its  baleful  shadow  over  much  of  the  litera-
ture of  earlier  days,  demoralizing  their  poetry  as  well.
The  great  Dante  makes  the  air  of  his  Inferno  trem-


324  MARION  GRAHAM;

ulous  with  the  sighs  of  men  and  women  and  infants,
to  whom  his  guide  explains,  —

'  Now  will  I  have  thee  know  ere  thou  go  farther.
That  they  sinned  not ;  and  if  they  merit  had,
'Tis  not  enough  because  they  had  not  Baptism  ! '

But  of  all  my  objections  to  Christianity,  the  most
appalling  is  the  doctrine  of  Infant  Damnation.  As
many  even  among  the  well-informed  deny  that  this
has  ever  been  accepted,  I  have  taken  great  pains  to
ascertain  the  facts.
