ews of our orthodox heaven. And yet I know that
what I gave was but mental nostrums, narcotics, to stupify until death
might end the suffering. Is that serving Christ? Is that Christianity?
Alas, no!"

"And if you were a good orthodox priest," interposed Haynerd, "you
would refuse burial to dissenters, and bar from your communion table
all who were not of your faith, eh?"

"Yes," sadly. "I would have to, were I consistent; for Catholicism is
the only true faith, founded upon the revealed word of God, you know."
He smiled pathetically as he looked around at the little group.

"Now," he continued, "you, Mr. Haynerd, are a man of the world. You
are not in sympathy with the Church. You are an infidel, an
unbeliever. And therefore are you '_anathema_,' you know." He laughed
as he went on. "But you can not deny that at times you think very
seriously. And, I may go farther: you long, intensely, for something
that the world does not offer. Now, what is it but truth that you are
seeking?"

"I want to know," answered Haynerd quickly. "I want to be shown. I
am fond of exhibitions of sleight-of-hand and jugglery. But the
priestly thaumaturgy that claims to transform a biscuit into the
flesh of a man dead some two thousand years, and a bit of grape juice
into his blood, irritates me inexpressibly! And so does the
jugglery by which your Protestant fellows, Hitt, attempt to reconcile
their opposite beliefs. Why, what difference can it possibly make
to the Almighty whether we miserable little beings down here are
baptised with water, milk, or kerosene, or whether we are immersed,
sprinkled, or well soused? Good heavens! for nearly twenty centuries
you have been wandering among the non-essentials. Isn't it time to get
down to business, and instead of burning at the stake every one who
differs with you, try conscientiously to put into practice a few of
the simple moral precepts, such as the Golden Rule, and loving
one's neighbor as one's self?"

"There," commented Father Waite, "you have a bit of the world's
opinion of the Church! Can we say that the censure is not just? Would
not Christ himself to-day speak even more scathingly to those who
advocate a system of belief that puts blinders on men's minds, and
then leads them into the pit of ignorance and superstition?"

"Ye have taken away the key of knowledge," murmured Carmen; "ye
entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye
hindered."

"Just so!" exclaimed Hayn