tendering them his warm sympathy. Yet
he sat spellbound.

"And so I retired from the ministry," continued the explorer. "I had
become ashamed of tearing down other men's religious beliefs. I was
weary of having to apologize constantly for the organization to which
I was attached. At home I had been taught a devout faith in revealed
religion; in the world I was thrown upon its inquiring doubts; I
yearned for faith, yet demanded scientific proof. Why, I would have
been satisfied with even the slight degree of proof which we are able
to advance for our various physical sciences. But, no, it was not
forthcoming. I must believe because the Fathers had believed. I
struggled between emotion and reason, until--well, until I had to
throw it all over to keep from going mad."

Jose bowed in silence before this recital of a soul-experience so
closely paralleling his own.

"But, come," said the explorer cheerily, "I'm doing all the talking.
Now--"

"No! no!" interrupted the eager Jose. "I do not wish to talk. I want
to hear you. Go on, I beg of you! Your words are like rain to a
parched field. You will yet offer me something upon which I can build
with new hope."

"Do not be so sanguine, my friend," returned the explorer in a kindly
tone. "I fear I shall be only the reaper, who cuts the weeds and
stubble, and prepares the field for the sower. I have said that I am
an explorer. But my field is not limited to this material world. I am
an explorer of men's thoughts as well. I am in search of a religion. I
manifest this century's earnest quest for demonstrable truth. And so I
stop and question every one I meet, if perchance he may point me in
the right direction. My incessant wandering about the globe is, if I
may put it that way, but the outward manifestation of my ceaseless
search in the realm of the soul."

He paused. Then, reaching out and laying a hand upon the priest's
knee, he said in a low, earnest voice, "My friend, _something_
happened in that first year of our so-called Christian era. What it
was we do not know. But out of the smoke and dust, the haze and mist
of that great cataclysm has proceeded the character Jesus--absolutely
unique. It is a character which has had a terrific influence upon the
world ever since. Because of it empires have crumbled; a hundred
million human lives have been destroyed; and the thought-processes of
a world have been overthrown or reversed. Just what he said, just what
he did, just how