h, my dear Holland, and that is, of course, the only
object you hope to achieve. Your book and your article were written with
the sole object of bringing intelligent people to church. But it occurs
to me, and I think it will occur to you also, that if the article be
taken seriously,--and it is meant to be taken seriously,--it may be the
means of keeping people away from the Church rather than bringing them
to church. It may even be the means of alienating from that fond,
if somewhat foolish old mother of ours, many of her children who are
already attached to her. I trust I don't speak harshly."

"Your lordship speaks most kindly; but the truth--"

"Should be spoken as gently as possible when it is calculated to wound,
Holland; that is why I trust I am speaking gently now. Ah, Holland!
there are the little children to be considered as well as the Scribes
and Pharisees. There are weaker brethren. You have heard of the
necessity for considering the weaker brethren."

"I seem to have heard of nothing else since I entered the Church; all
the brethren are the weaker brethren."

"They are; I am one of the weaker brethren myself. It is all a question
of comparison. I don't say that your article is likely to have the
effect of causing me to join the band of non-church-goers. I don't at
this moment believe that it will drive me to golf instead of Gospel; but
I honestly do believe that it is calculated to do that to hundreds of
persons who just now require but the smallest grain of argument to turn
the balance of their minds in favor of golf. Your aim was not in that
direction, I'm sure, Holland."

"My aim was to speak the truth, my lord."

"In order to achieve a noble object--the gathering of the stragglers
into the fold."

"That was my motive, my lord."

"You announce boldly that this old mother of ours is in a moribund
condition, in order that you may gather in as many of her scattered
children as possible to stand at her bedside? Ah, my dear Holland! the
moribund brings together the wolves and the vultures and all unclean,
hungry things to try and get a mouthful off those prostrate limbs of
hers--a mouthful while her flesh is still warm. I tell you this--I who
have from time to time during the last fifty years heard the howl of the
hyena, seen the talons of the vulture at the door of her chamber. They
fancied that the end could not be far off, that no more strength was
left in that aged body that lay prone for the mom