d. Good
heavens! how these poor theologians hide their inability to do the
works of the Master by taking refuge in such ridiculously unwarranted
assertions. To them the rule seems to be that, if you can't do a thing
you must deny the possibility of its being done. Great logic, isn't
it?

"And yet," he went on, "the Church has had nearly two thousand years
in which to learn to do the works of the Master. Pretty dull pupil, I
think. And we've had nearly two thousand years of theology from this
slow pupil. Would that she would from now on give us a little real
Christianity! Heavens! the world needs it. And yet, do you know,
sectarian feeling is still so bitter in the so-called Church of God
that if a Bishop of the Anglican Church should admit Presbyterians,
Methodists, or members of other denominations to his communion table a
scream of rage would go up all over England, and a mighty demand would
be raised to impeach the Bishop for heresy! Think of it! God above!
the puny human mind. Do you wonder that the dogma of the Church has
lost force? That, despite its thunders, thinking men laugh? I freely
admit that our great need is to find an adequate substitute for the
authority which others would like to impose upon us. But where shall
we find such authority, if not in those who demonstrate their ability
to do the works of the Master? Show me your works, and I'll show you
my faith. This is my perpetual challenge.

"But, now," he said, "returning to the subject so near your heart: the
condition of this country is that of a large part of South America,
where the population is unsettled, even turbulent, and where a
priesthood, fanatical, intolerant, often unscrupulous, pursue their
devious means to extend and perpetuate unhindered the sway of your
Church. Colombia is struggling to remove the blight which Spain laid
upon her, namely, mediaeval religion. It is this same blighting
religion, coupled with her remorseless greed, which has brought Spain
to her present decrepit, empty state. And how she did strive to force
that religion upon the world! Whole nations, like the Incas, for
example, ruthlessly slaughtered by the papal-benisoned riffraff of
Spain in her attempts to foist herself into world prestige and to
bolster up the monstrous assumptions of Holy Church! The Incas were a
grand nation, with a splendid mental viewpoint. But it withered under
the touch of the mediaeval narrowness fastened upon it. Whole nations
wasted in s