ut _I_ say unto you;' that contrast denotes the more
perfect way, or the gospel ... He came not to destroy, but to fulfil the
law ... I can't recollect of a sudden; ... oh, for instance, _this_ is a
case in point; He abolished a permission which had been given to the
Jews because of the hardness of their hearts."

"Not quite in point," said Carlton, "for the Jews, in their divorces,
had fallen _below_ nature. 'Let no man put asunder,' was the rule in
Paradise."

"Still, surely the idea of an Apostle, unmarried, pure, in fast and
nakedness, and at length a martyr, is a higher idea than that of one of
the old Israelites sitting under his vine and fig-tree, full of temporal
goods, and surrounded by sons and grandsons. I am not derogating from
Gideon or Caleb; I am adding to St. Paul."

"St. Paul's is a very particular case," said Carlton.

"But he himself lays down the general maxim, that it is 'good' for a man
to continue as he was."

"There we come to a question of criticism, what 'good' means: I may
think it means 'expedient,' and what he says about the 'present
distress' confirms it."

"Well, I won't go to criticism," said Charles; "take the text, 'in sin
hath my mother conceived me.' Do not these words show that, over and
above the doctrine of original sin, there is (to say the least) great
risk of marriage leading to sin in married people?"

"My dear Reding," said Carlton, astonished, "you are running into
Gnosticism."

"Not knowingly or willingly," answered Charles; "but understand what I
mean. It's not a subject I can talk about; but it seems to me, without
of course saying that married persons must sin (which would be
Gnosticism), that there is a danger of sin. But don't let me say more on
this point."

"Well," said Carlton, after thinking awhile, "_I_ have been accustomed
to consider Christianity as the perfection of man as a whole, body,
soul, and spirit. Don't misunderstand me. Pantheists say body and
intellect, leaving out the moral principle; but I say spirit as well as
mind. Spirit, or the principle of religious faith and obedience, should
be the master principle, the _hegemonicon_. To this both intellect and
body are subservient; but as this supremacy does not imply the
ill-usage, the bondage of the intellect, neither does it of the body;
both should be well treated."

"Well, I think, on the contrary, it does imply in one sense the bondage
of intellect and body too. What is faith but the submis