ould
be doing no violence to the freedom of his own will, but rather be the
fulfilment of a long-felt desire, if he were to tell Jesus simply all
that oppressed him; that his love for Him, his faith in Him, had a
saving power even for his soul. He lifted up his eyes and heart to
Him, and to Him, as to a trusted friend, confided all that troubled and
hindered him and besought His aid.

In loving Him, he and Paula were one, he knew, though they had not the
same idea of His nature.

Orion, as he meditated, thought out the points on which her views
deviated from his own: she believed that the divine and the human
natures were distinct in the person of Christ. And as he reflected on
this creed, till now so horrible in his eyes, he felt that the unique
individuality of the Saviour, shedding forth love and truth, came home
to him more closely when he pictured Him perfect and spotless, yet
feeling as a man; walking among men with all their joy in life in
His heart, alive to every pang and sorrow which can torture mortals,
rejoicing with them, and taking upon Himself unspeakable humiliation,
suffering, and death, with a stricken, bleeding, and yet self-devoting
heart, for pure love of the wretched race to which He could stoop from
His glory. Yes, this Christ could be his Redeemer too. The Almighty Lord
had become his perfect and most loving friend, his glorious, but lenient
and tender brother, to whom he could gladly give his whole heart, who
understood everything, who was ready to forgive everything--even all
that was seething in his aching heart which longed for purification--and
all because He once had suffered as a man suffers.

For the first time he, the Jacobite, dared to confess so much to
himself; and not solely for Paula's sake. A violent clanging on a
cracked metal plate roused him from his meditations by its harsh clamor;
the sacrament of the Last Supper was about to be administered: the
invariable conclusion of the Jacobite service. The bishop came forth
from behind the screen of the inner sanctuary, poured some wine into a
silver cup and crumbled into it two little cakes stamped with the Coptic
cross. Of this mixture he first partook, and then gave it in a spoon
to each member of the congregation who came up to receive it. Orion
approached after two elders of the Church. Finally the priest rinsed
out the cup, and drained the very washings, that no drop of the saving
liquid should be lost.

How high had Orion's