A story for every day...
A fiancée of character.
A rich girl was engaged to an official. On the eve of the wedding, a few relatives and friends were invited, and the conversation was lively. Suddenly the groom began to mock religion and its ceremonies. The girl was moved by this and asked him gently to stop his taunts, to which the groom replied that he was a man of progress and that he had moved on to the agenda on these matters. The girl was frightened, but she did not relax and said, “A man who does not esteem God and religion cannot respect his wife either: therefore I do not want you anymore.” All the urgings, even those of her parents, did not succeed in shaking her; she maintained her resolution and by the firmness of her character won the esteem of the whole town. Needless to say, she did not repent.
The freethinker and the believing peasant.
A freethinker who was on holiday in the country saw one day a peasant coming out of church. “I don’t understand,” he said, “why you attach so much importance to religion, in these days when all intelligent people are turning away from it. – I don’t know, sir,” replied the peasant with an ironic smile, “how I am to understand your words. But there is one thing I think I should tell you, and that is that all those who have bad morals, and who often deserve the rope, turn away from religion and become anticlerical. This is one more reason for me to practice my religion so that I will not be looked upon as belonging to this pretty society.” The freethinker, who imagined he was dealing with a naïve man, went away without a word.
– The peasant had answered well, for as soon as a man begins to enter a bad way, the Decalogue and Religion are a burden to him because they are a continual protest against his conduct. It is therefore a bad sign when one begins to mock or fight the Church.
– Unbelief generally has its source in the corruption of morals.
