boldly: every new confidence
nails him to his vows; he knows that the very worst of his past will
never be brought up against him, and he is supported by the sympathy of
the rough fellows who punctuate his utterances with sighs and kindly
handshaking.

When the penitent sits down his mind is eased; the mysterious sympathy
of numbers cheers him, the sense of Divine forgiveness has given him
power, and he is ready to face life again with new heart. Ferrier caught
the note of formality again and again, but he could see that the phrases
had not putrefied into cant.

Just as the soul can only be made manifest through the body, so a
thought can only be made manifest by means of words. An importunate,
living thought is framed in a perfect phrase which reflects the life of
the thought. Then you have genuine religious utterance. The conditions
change and the thought is outworn: if the phrase that clothed the old
thought remains and is used glibly as a verbal counter, then you have
Cant, and the longer the phrase is parrotted by an unbeliever, the more
venomous does the virus of cant become. To the fishers--childlike
men--many of the old Methodist turns of speech are vital; to a cultured
man the husk of words may be dry and dead, but if he is clever and
indulgent he will see the difference between his own mental state and
that of the poor fisher to whom he listens.

The experiences were as varied as possible; some were awe-striking, some
were pitiful, some verged on comedy. The comfortable thing--the
beautiful thing--about the confessions, was that each man seemed tacitly
to imply a piteous prayer, "My brothers help me to keep near my Saviour.
I may fall unless you keep by me;" while the steady-going, earnest men
took no praise to themselves for keeping straight, but generally ended
with some such phrase as, "Praise the blessed Lord; it's all along o'
His grace as I've been walkin' alongside o' Him."

One fine man, with stolid, hard face, rose and steadied himself against
a beam. His full bass tones were sad, and he showed no sign of that
self-satisfied smirk which sometimes makes the mind revolt against a
convert.

"My friends, I'm no great speaker, but I can tell you plain how I come
to be where I am. I was a strongish, rough young chap, and thought about
nothing but games. I would fight, play cards, and a lot of more things
that we don't want to talk about here. When I married, I drank and
thought of nothing but my own s