Him and receive Him, I can not
even conjecture. But His word cannot fail; and in His own appointed
time, and in His own appointed way, I verily believe that He will
draw unto Himself all men who have ever called upon His name, and
all those unto whom His name has never been proclaimed, and who,
therefore, have never rejected Him. In that hope and that belief I
try to rest; and fixing my eyes and thoughts upon Him and Him
alone, I strive to forget the chaos and the strife of earth, and to
look upon all men as brothers in Christ, if they will but bow the
knee at that thrice holy name."

Edred looked at him with wide-open eyes.

"Heretics call upon the name of Jesus. Thinkest thou that heretics
will be saved? I thought they were doomed to hellfire forever!"

The boy spoke in a voice that was little more than a whisper. He
was almost afraid to hear the answer, lest it should convey a germ
of the dreaded heresy, and yet how eager he was to know what
Brother Emmanuel really thought.

"It is not for me to say who will and who will not be saved," he
said, slowly and thoughtfully; "and we are expressly told that
there will be punishment for those who fall away from the faith.
Yet we are not told that error will be punished with everlasting
death. And there be places in Holy Scripture which tell us that
'whoso believeth and is baptized shall be saved;' and heretics
believe that Christ died for the world. It says, again, that those
who love the Lord are born of God; and shall they perish
everlastingly? My son, the mercies of God are very great; from end
to end of this book we are told that. Knowing so much, need we ask
more? With Him rests the judgment of all mankind. He alone can read
the heart. Let that thought be enough for us. Whether the sin of
heresy is as vile in His eyes as in those of man, He alone knows;
we do not. Let us strive for our own part to keep the unity of the
faith in the bond of peace, and leave all else to Him."

As he spoke, Brother Emmanuel gently closed the book, as though to
close the discussion likewise; and Edred, looking up and round
about him, drawing a long breath meantime, suddenly gave a start,
which attracted the attention of his preceptor.

A short distance away--how he had got there neither of the pair
knew; they had been too much engrossed in their talk to take much
heed of external impressions--was an elderly monk, clad in the same
gown and hood as Brother Emmanuel, betokening that h