Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/65

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 53 Examine yourself on this point, and, if guilty, accuse yourself somewhat as follows : " I have loved my riches, which belong to the poor, so much that I neglected to wive alms." ' On the necessities of repentance for the forgiveness of sin it says : ' You must know that there are various kinds of sorrow for sin. . . . The first kind is when a man understands that sin is inconsistent with a virtuous life, and misgiving and regret come over him for having sinned. . . . Such sorrow have the heathens and Turks and Jews. The second kind comes with the feeling that by sin one's reputation for goodness is gone, and one is branded as a perjurer, murderer, thief, &c, according to one's fault. The third proceeds from the knowledge that by one deadly sin man is in danger of hell-fire. All these kinds of sorrow spring from selfishness and the fear of personal loss or punishment, not from the love of God and of His honour. But the right kind of sorrow comes from the sense of having offended the supreme, perfect, and Almighty God, the Creator, Father, and Saviour, by insulting His honour and glory and breaking His laws. When man has such sorrow, and, with the firm resolution to sin no more, confesses his misdeeds and trusts in the mercy of God and the merits and passion of Christ, he will be for- given. The beauty of innocence will again clothe his heart, and his soul once more become the temple of the Holy Ghost. Man should strive after the attain- ment of contrition of this sort before and during con- fession.' ' The Light of the Soul,' a book which appeared in Ltibeck in 1484, says: 'Penance saves the soul from hell ; whoever dies in a state of deadly sin without