in it from
the first. The life-long vanity of a woman used to be treated with
consideration, to be taken seriously, was aroused. This extraordinary
man had refused to enter into the details which she inquisitively
craved.

Charlotte Plimpton rose.

"I shall not bother you any longer at present, Mr. Hodder," she said
sweetly. "I know you must have, this morning especially, a great deal to
trouble you."

He met her scrutiny calmly.

"It is only the things we permit to trouble us that do so, Mrs.
Plimpton," he replied. "My own troubles have arisen largely from a lack
of faith on the part of those whom I feel it is my duty to influence."

It was then she delivered her parting shot, which she repeated, with
much satisfaction, to her husband that evening. She had reached the
door. "Was there a special service at Calvary yesterday?" she asked
innocently, turning back.

"Not that I know of."

"I wondered. Mr. Parr was there; I'm told--and he's never been known to
desert St. John's except on the rarest occasions. But oh, Mr. Hodder, I
must congratulate you on your influence with Alison. When she has been
out here before she never used to come to church at all."

Volume 7.

CHAPTER XXIII. THE CHOICE

I

Pondering over Alison's note, he suddenly recalled and verified some
phrases which had struck him that summer on reading Harnack's celebrated
History of Dogma, and around these he framed his reply. "To act as if
faith in eternal life and in the living Christ was the simplest thing in
the world, or a dogma to which one has to submit, is irreligious... It
is Christian to pray that God would give the Spirit to make us strong
to overcome the feelings and the doubts of nature... Where this faith,
obtained in this way, exists, it has always been supported by the
conviction that the Man lives who brought life and immortality to
light. To hold fast this faith is the goal of life, for only what we
consciously strive for is in this matter our own. What we think we
possess is very soon lost."

"The feelings and the doubts of nature!" The Divine Discontent, the
striving against the doubt that every honest soul experiences and
admits. Thus the contrast between her and these others who accepted and
went their several ways was brought home to him.

He longed to talk to her, but his days were full. Yet the very thought
of her helped to bear him up as his trials, his problems accumulated;
nor would he at any time h