questions--I have heard them answered in so many different ways by men
I love and honor. Some of my dearest friends profess the opinions you
condemn: I listen and learn, and have not yet ventured to decide."

"He who is not with me, is against me, saith the Lord--"

"No, I could not be against Him--I could not strive against the Spirit.
Who does deny the Spirit? even among those who would bind it to the
laws of matter?--Are not its miracles the same, even if they be no more
than nature's fairest blossoms? Is a noble image to be scorned, for
only being of stone?"

"You talk as they all do; your heads are darkened by your own dim
metaphors--you are so deafened with the sound of your empty words, that
the small voice within you speaks unheard--and is it thus you come to
celebrate our Whitsuntide?"

"I came because I loved you--"

There was silence again between them. The old vicar's lips parted more
than once, as if to speak, and firmly closed again. They heard
Marlene's voice below, and Clement left the window at which he had been
sorrowfully standing. "It is Marlene," his father said: "Have you
forgotten her? Among your profane associates who vie with each other
in their reckless folly and deny the Spirit and the liberty of the
Spirit--the freedom of God's adoption--did the memory of your young
playfellow never come to remind you of the wonders the Spirit can work,
when severed from outward sense; and of the strength God's grace can
give to a humble heart that is firm in Faith?"

Clement kept back the answer that was on his lips, for he heard the
blind girl's light step upon the stairs.--The door opened, and she
stood on the threshold with blushing cheeks. "Clement!" she cried,
turning her gentle eyes to the spot where he actually stood. He went up
to her, and took the hand she held out waiting for him. "How glad you
have made your parents! Welcome, welcome! a thousand welcomes! but why
are you so silent?" she added.

"Yes, dear child," he said, "I am here--I wanted so much to see you all
again; and how well you look! You have grown taller."

"The spring has set me up again--this winter was very hard to bear--but
your parents are so good to me, Clement.--Good morning, father dear;"
she said, turning to him--"It was so early when we went out to the
field, that I could not come up to shake hands then"--and she held out
hers to him.

"Go downstairs now, dear child, and take Clement with you. You can shew
him you