Good and Evil by Washington Allston

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 3, 1859

Good and Evil.

By Washington Allston

A REAL debt of gratitude—that is, one founded on a disinterested act of kindness—cannot be canceled by any subsequent act of unkindness on the part of our benefactor. If the favor be of a pecuniary nature, we may, indeed, by returning an equal or greater sum, balance the moneyed part, but we cannot liquidate the kind motive by setting against it any number of unkind ones. For an after injury can no more undo a previous kindness than we prevent in the future what has happened in the past. So neither can a good act undo an evil one; a fearful truth! For good and evil have a moral life which nothing in time can extinguish. The instant they exist, they start for eternity. How then can a man who has once sinned, and has not of himself cleansed his soul, be fit for heaven where no sin can enter? I seek not to enter into the mystery of the Atonement, which even the angels sought to comprehend but could not, but I feel its truth in an unutterable conviction, and that without it all flesh must perish.—Washington Allston.