no excuse, for salvation is at hand."

"Salvation? And your thought regarding that?" he said in a skirmishing
tone.

"_Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts_,"
she replied earnestly. "_To him that soweth righteousness_--right
thinking--_shall be a sure reward_. Ah, Monsignor, do you at heart
believe that the religion of the Christ depends upon doctrines, signs,
dogmas? No, it does not. But signs and proofs naturally and inevitably
follow the right understanding of Jesus' teachings, even according to
these words: _These signs shall follow them that believe_. Paul gave the
formula for salvation, when he said: _But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord_. Can you
understand that? Can you see that, taking Jesus as our model and
following his every command--seeing Him only, the Christ-principle, which
is God, good, without any admixture of evil--we change, even though
slowly, from glory to glory, step by step, until we rise out of all
sense of evil and death? And this is done by the Spirit which is God."

"Yes," said Father Waite, taking up the conversation when she paused.
"Even the poorest human being can understand that. Why, then, the
fungus growth of traditions, ceremonies, rites and forms which have
sprung up about the Master's simple words? Why the wretched
formalistic worship throughout the world? Why the Church's frigid,
lifeless traditions, so inconsistent with the enlarging sense of God
which marks this latest century? The Church has yet to prove its
utility, its right to exist and to pose as the religious teacher of
mankind. Else must it fall beneath the axe which is even now at the
root of the barren tree of theology. Her theology, like the Judaism of
the Master's day, has no prophets, no poets, no singers. And her
priests, as in his time, have sunk into a fanatical observance of
ritual and form."

"And yet," observed Carmen, "you still urge me to unite with it."

Lafelle was growing weary. Moreover, it irked him sore to be made a
target for the unassailable logic of the apostate Waite. Then, too,
the appearance of the ex-priest there that afternoon in company with
this girl who held such radical views regarding religious matters
portended in his thought the possibility of a united assault upon the
foundations of his cherished system. This girl was now a menace