onceive, and adheres to it in spite of conventionality, is a Christian
whether he knows it and calls himself one, or whether he does not. A
rose is not the less a rose because it does not know its own name.

What if circumstances had made his duty more easy for him than it would
be to most men? That was his luck, as much as it is other people's luck
to have other duties made easy for them by accident of birth. Surely if
people are born rich or handsome they have a right to their good fortune.
Some I know, will say that one man has no right to be born with a better
constitution than another; others again will say that luck is the only
righteous object of human veneration. Both, I daresay, can make out a
very good case, but whichever may be right surely Ernest had as much
right to the good luck of finding a duty made easier as he had had to the
bad fortune of falling into the scrape which had got him into prison. A
man is not to be sneered at for having a trump card in his hand; he is
only to be sneered at if he plays his trump card badly.

Indeed, I question whether it is ever much harder for anyone to give up
father and mother for Christ's sake than it was for Ernest. The
relations between the parties will have almost always been severely
strained before it comes to this. I doubt whether anyone was ever yet
required to give up those to whom he was tenderly attached for a mere
matter of conscience: he will have ceased to be tenderly attached to them
long before he is called upon to break with them; for differences of
opinion concerning any matter of vital importance spring from differences
of constitution, and these will already have led to so much other
disagreement that the "giving up" when it comes, is like giving up an
aching but very loose and hollow tooth. It is the loss of those whom we
are not required to give up for Christ's sake which is really painful to
us. Then there is a wrench in earnest. Happily, no matter how light the
task that is demanded from us, it is enough if we do it; we reap our
reward, much as though it were a Herculean labour.

But to return, the conclusion Ernest came to was that he would be a
tailor. He talked the matter over with the chaplain, who told him there
was no reason why he should not be able to earn his six or seven
shillings a day by the time he came out of prison, if he chose to learn
the trade during the remainder of his term--not quite three months; the
doctor said