Silas K. Hocking

“ Many a gentleman, catching just a glimpse of the pale sweet face as he hurried past, would turn to have another look at the child, and without taking any of her fusees, would put a penny, and sometimes more, into the little thin hand. ”

“ No water, no light, no mercy, no hope. And when a million million years are past, still burnin', and no nearer the end than at the beginnin'. Oh, how shall I bear it—how shall I bear it?"
And big drops of perspiration oozed from his forehead and rolled down his face, testifying to the anguish of his soul.
"I canna understand it—I canna understand it," he went on. "All this pain and suffering for His glory. What kind o' glory can it be, to bring folks into the world doomed afore-hand to eternal misery? to give 'em no chance o' repentance, an' then damn them for ever 'cause they don't repent! ”

“ The old woman had told them on the first evening of their arrival, when they seemed at a loss what name to give her, to call her granny; and no name could have been more appropriate, or have come more readily to the children's lips.
"But could folks 'ave Christmas any oftener if they wished to?" asked little Nell.
"In course they could, Nell," burst out Benny. "You dunna seem to know what folks make Christmas for."
"An' I thinks as you dunno either, Benny."
"Don't I, though?" he said, putting on an air of importance. "It's made to give folks the chance of doing a lot o' feeding ”

“ I don't see as how He can make an end o' sin without makin' an end o' the sinner; an' whiles there is millions sich as me in hell, there'll be no end to neither on 'em. I'm sadly out in my reck'nin' somewheres, but 'pears to me if there was no sinners there 'ud be no sin; an' the way to rid the univarse of sinners is to get 'em all saved or kill 'em outright."
Much more to the same effect Joe Wrag turned over in his mind that night, but we must not weary the reader with his speculations. Like many other of God's children, he was crying in the darkness and longing for light. ”

“ I think sometimes there's jist a bit o' the right stuff in me; an' if hell would burn up the bad an' leave the good, an' give it a chance of some'at better, there 'ud be more justice in it, seems to me. ”