the harrowing thing that Jesus, according to Saint Matthew, had promised to say in the Person of God to sinners on Judgment Day. This is it: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” These words appalled me then, and they appall me now. They are surely the inspiration for the notorious cruelty of Christians. “Jesus may have said that,” I told Larkin, “but it is so unlike most of what else He said that I have to conclude that He was slightly crazy that day.”
