mistaken endeavors; but he did not recognize that while he himself
was unforgiving, unloving, harsh, and self-indulgent, all his
arguments for Christianity were of necessity null and void. He
argued for the existence of a perfectly loving, good God, all the
while treating his son with injustice and tyranny. Of course there
could be only one result from a debate between the two. Luke
Raeburn with his honesty, his great abilities, his gift of
reasoning, above all his thorough earnestness, had the best of it.

To be beaten in argument was naturally the one thing which such a
man as Mr. Raeburn could not forgive. He might in time have
learned to tolerate a difference of opinion, he would beyond a
doubt have forgiven almost any of the failings that he could
understand, would have paid his son's college debts without a
murmur, would have overlooked anything connected with what he
considered the necessary process of "sowing his wild oats." But
that the fellow should presume to think out the greatest problems
in the world, should set up his judgment against Paley's, and worst
of all should actually and palpably beat HIM in argument--this
was an unpardonable offense.

A stormy scene ensued. The father, in ungovernable fury, heaped
upon the son every abusive epithet he could think of. Luke Raeburn
spoke not a word; he was strong and self-controlled; moreover, he
knew that he had had the best of the argument. He was human,
however, and his heart was wrung by his father's bitterness.
Standing there on that summer day, in the study of the Scotch
parsonage, the man's future was sealed. He suffered there the loss
of all things, but at the very time there sprung up in him an
enthusiasm for the cause of free thought, a passionate, burning