... 1 Zeezrom's suffering was the inevitable consequence of his own self-purification. No one realized better than he that the crisis through which his soul had successfully passed might, but for the grace of God, have been resolved in favor of death and condemnation. No one was more aware than he of the heavy burden of his sin. No mind was more tortured than his by the consciousness of a wicked, wasted life, and by the memory of the evil done to friends whose lives he had destroyed.
Repentance, it is true, is balm to the pain-wracked conscience, but not before it has been tried by fire. Zeezrom endured, and survived, the ordeal. His spirit, now reborn, was soon to taste a joy which it had never known before. 2