verb of one syllable, more familiar to the ears of the
forecastle than to those of the vestry.

But on the other hand, it is far from uncommon to meet with persons
among the so-called "liberal" denominations who are uneasy for want of
a more definite ritual and a more formal organization than they find in
their own body. Now, the rector or the minister must be well aware that
there are such cases, and each of them must be aware that there are
individuals under his guidance whom he cannot satisfy by argument, and
who really belong by all their instincts to another communion. It seems
as if a thoroughly honest, straight-collared clergyman would say frankly
to his restless parishioner: "You do not believe the central doctrines
of the church which you are in the habit of attending. You belong
properly to Brother A.'s or Brother B.'s fold, and it will be more manly
and probably more profitable for you to go there than to stay with us."
And, again, the rolling-collared clergyman might be expected to say to
this or that uneasy listener: "You are longing for a church which will
settle your beliefs for you, and relieve you to a great extent from the
task, to which you seem to be unequal, of working out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. Go over the way to Brother C.'s or Brother
D.'s; your spine is weak, and they will furnish you a back-board which
will keep you straight and make you comfortable." Patients are not the
property of their physicians, nor parishioners of their ministers.

As for the children of clergymen, the presumption is that they will
adhere to the general belief professed by their fathers. But they do
not lose their birthright or their individuality, and have the world
all before them to choose their creed from, like other persons. They are
sometimes called to account for attacking the dogmas they are supposed
to have heard preached from their childhood. They cannot defend
themselves, for various good reasons. If they did, one would have to say
he got more preaching than was good for him, and came at last to feel
about sermons and their doctrines as confectioners' children do about
candy. Another would have to own that he got his religious belief, not
from his father, but from his mother. That would account for a great
deal, for the milk in a woman's veins sweetens, or at least, dilutes an
acrid doctrine, as the blood of the motherly cow softens the virulence
of small-pox, so that its mark survives on