t do you mean?" Mr. Atterbury demanded.

"I mean that they do not succeed in making Christians."

"And by that you imply that the members of your congregation, those who
have been brought up and baptized and confirmed in this church, are not
Christians?"

"I am sorry to say a great many of them are not," said the rector.

"In other words, you affirm that the sacrament of baptism is of no
account."

"I affirm that baptism with water is not sufficient."

"I'm afraid that this is very grave," Mr. Hodder.

"I quite agree with you," replied the rector, looking straight at his
vestryman.

"And I understood,--" the other went on, clearing his throat once more,
"I think I have it correctly stated in my notes, but I wish to be quite
clear, that you denied the doctrine of the virgin birth."

Hodder made a strong effort to control himself.

"What I have said I have said," he answered, "and I have said it in the
hope that it might make some impression upon the lives of those to
whom I spoke. You were one of them, Mr. Atterbury. And if I repeat
and amplify my meaning now, it must be understood that I have no other
object except that of putting you in the way of seeing that the religion
of Christ is unique in that it is dependent upon no doctrine or dogma,
upon no external or material sign or proof or authority whatever. I am
utterly indifferent to any action you may contemplate taking concerning
me. Read your four Gospels carefully. If we do not arrive, through
contemplation of our Lord's sojourn on this earth, of his triumph
over death, of his message--which illuminates the meaning of our lives
here--at that inner spiritual conversion of which he continually speaks,
and which alone will give us charity, we are not Christians."

"But the doctrines of the Church, which we were taught from childhood to
believe? The doctrines which you once professed, and of which you have
now made such an unlooked-for repudiation!"

"Yes, I have changed," said the rector, gazing seriously at the
twitching figure of his vestryman, "I was bound, body and soul, by those
very doctrines." He roused himself. "But on what grounds do you declare,
Mr. Atterbury," he demanded, somewhat sternly, "that this church is
fettered by an ancient and dogmatic conception of Christianity? Where
are you to find what are called the doctrines of the Church? What may
be heresy in one diocese is not so in another, and I can refer to you
volumes written by ministe