f
purpose that almost frightened him when he thought of that great world
outside, in the confusion and complexity of which they had pledged
themselves to lead souls up to God. He felt how much they missed by not
relying rather upon the Sacraments than upon personal holiness and the
upright conduct of the individual. They were obsessed with the need of
setting a good example and of being able from the pulpit to direct the
wandering lamb to the Good Shepherd. Mark scarcely ever argued about his
point of view, because he was sure that perception of what the
Sacraments could do for human nature must be given by the grace of God,
and that the most exhaustive process of inductive logic would not avail
in the least to convince somebody on whom the fact had not dawned in a
swift and comprehensive inspiration of his inner life. Sometimes indeed
Mark would defend himself from attack, as when it was suggested that his
reliance upon the Sacraments was only another aspect of Justification by
Faith Alone, in which the effect of a momentary conversion was prolonged
by mechanical aids to worship.

"But I should prefer my idolatry of the outward form to your idolatry of
the outward form," he would maintain.

"What possible idolatry can come from the effect upon a congregation of
a good sermon?" they protested.

"I don't claim that a preacher might not bring the whole of his
congregation to the feet of God," Mark allowed. "But I must have less
faith in human nature than you have, for I cannot believe that any
preacher could exercise a permanent effect without the Sacraments. You
all know the person who says that the sound of an organ gives him holy
thoughts, makes him feel good, as the cant phrase goes? I've no doubt
that people who sit under famous preachers get the same kind of
sensation Sunday after Sunday. But sooner or later they will be
worshipping the outward form--that is to say the words that issue from
the preacher's mouth and produce those internal moral rumblings in the
pit of the soul which other listeners get from the diapason. Have your
organs, have your sermons, have your matins and evensong; but don't put
them on the same level as the Blessed Sacrament. The value of that is
absolute, and I refuse to consider It from the point of view of
pragmatic philosophy."

All would protest that Mark was putting a wrong interpretation upon
their argument; what they desired to avoid was the substitution of the
Blessed Sacrament f