e passed completely out of my life. If you had not done so
before, the publication of that article in the _Zeit Geist_ would force
me to tell you that you had done so now. To me my religion has always
been a living thing; my Bible has been my guide. You trampled upon the
one some months ago, you have trampled on the other now. You shocked me,
Mr. Holland."

"I have always loved you, Phyllis. I think I love you better than I ever
did, if that were possible," said he. "I am overwhelmed with grief at
the thought of the barrier which your fancy has built up between us."

"Fancy?"

"Your fancy, dear child. I feel that the barrier which you fancy is now
between us is unworthy of you."

"What? Do you mean to say that you think that my detestation--my--my
horror of your sneers at the Bible, which I believe to be the Word of
God--of the contempt you have heaped upon the Church which I believe to
be God's agent on earth for the salvation of men's souls--do you think
that my detestation of these is a mere girlish fancy?"

"I don't think that, Phyllis. What I think is, that if you had ever
loved me you would be ready to stand by my side now--to be guided by me
in a matter which I have made the study of my life."

"In such matters as these--the value or the worthlessness of the Bible;
the value or the worthlessness of the Church--I require no guide, Mr.
Holland. I do not need to go to a priest to ask if it is wrong to steal,
to covet another's goods, to honor my father----Oh, I cannot discuss
what is so very obvious. The Bible I regard as precious; you think that
you are in a position to edit it as if it were an ordinary book. The
Church I regard as the Temple of God upon the earth; you think that
it exists only to be sneered at? and yet you talk of fanciful barriers
between us!"

"I consider it the greatest privilege of a man on earth to be a minister
of the Church of Christ."

"Why, then, do you take every opportunity of pointing to it as the
greatest enemy to Christianity?"

"The Church of to-day represents some results of the great Reformation.
That Reformation was due to the intelligence of those men who perceived
that it had become the enemy to freedom; the enemy to the development
of thought; the enemy to the aspirations of a great nation. The nation
rejoiced in the freedom of thought of which the great charter was the
Reformation. But during the hundreds of years that have elapsed since
that Reformation, some enor