"I do," said the priest; and paused as if to gauge the sincerity of his
companion. "In fact, I went through a similar experience."

"Then you can tell me what you think of my position."

"I have already told you," said the priest earnestly. "You are the one
to do the thinking now. All I can do is to point out the road by which
you may best retrace your way. You have told me just what I expected
to hear; I admire your honesty in telling it--not to me, but to
yourself. Don't you see that your reason for deserting your Faith was
but a reason for greater loyalty? The oldest idea of religion in the
world, after that of the existence and providence of God, is the idea
of sacrifice. Even pagans never lost that idea. Nothing in this world
is worth having but must be paid for. Its cost is summed up in
sacrifice. Now, religion demands the same. If it calls for right
living, it calls for the sacrifice that right living demands. An
athlete gets his muscle and strength, not by coddling his body, but by
restraining its passions and curbing its indolence, by working its
softness into force and power. A river is bound between banks, and
only thus bound is it anything but a menace. If a church claims to
have the Truth, she forfeits her first claim to a hearing if she asks
for no sacrifice. That your Church asked many sacrifices was no cause
for your throwing her over, but a sign that she claimed the just right
to put religion in positive form, and to give precepts of sacrifice,
without the giving of which she would have no right to exist at all.
Am I clear?"

"You are clear, Father, and I know you are right. I have never been
able to leave my own Faith entirely out of the reckoning. I am not
trying to excuse myself. I could not ignore it, for it intruded itself