e
spiritual; that it was making the Church, and therefore God, conform to
the human notion of what the welfare of society ought to be. And it is
absurd to promise to love. We have no control over our affections. They
are in God's hands, to grant or withdraw.

"And yet I am sure--this is new since I have known you--that if such a
great love as ours be withdrawn it would be an unpardonable wrong for
either of us to marry again. That is what puzzles me--confounds the
wisdom I used to have, and which in my littleness and pride I thought so
sufficient. I didn't believe in God, but now I feel him, through you,
though I cannot define him. And one of many reasons why I could not
believe in Christ was because I took it for granted that he taught, among
other things, a continuation of the marriage relation after love had
ceased to justify it."

Hodder did not immediately reply. Nor did Alison interrupt his silence,
but sat with the stillness which at times so marked her personality, her
eyes trustfully fixed on him. The current pulsing between them was
unbroken. Hodder's own look, as he gazed into the grate, was that of a
seer.

"Yes," he said at length, "it is by the spirit and not the letter of our
Lord's teaching that we are guided. The Spirit which we draw from the
Gospels. And everything written down there that does not harmonize with
it is the mistaken interpretation of men. Once the Spirit possesses us
truly, we are no longer troubled and confused by texts.

"The alpha and omega of Christ's message is rebirth into the knowledge of
that Spirit, and hence submission to its guidance. And that is what Paul
meant when he said that it freed us from the law. You are right, Alison,
when you declare it to be a violation of the Spirit for a man and woman
to live together when love does not exist. Christ shows us that laws
were made for those who are not reborn. Laws are the rules of society,
to be followed by those who have not found the inner guidance, who live
and die in the flesh. But the path which those who live under the
control of the Spirit are to take is opened up to them as they journey.
If all men and women were reborn we should have the paradox, which only
the reborn can understand, of what is best for the individual being best
for society, because under the will of the Spirit none can transgress
upon the rights and happiness of others. The Spirit would make the laws
and rules superfluous.

"And the great crime of