His doctrines mocked at and denounced as futile. Few men there are
in these days who would deny themselves for His sake, or sacrifice a
personal passion for the purer honouring of His name. Inasmuch as
the pride of great learning breeds arrogance, so the more the wonder
of God's work is displayed to us, the more are we dazzled and
confounded; and so in our blindness we turn from the worship of the
Creator to that of His creation, forgetting that all the visible
universe is but the outcome or expression of the hidden Divine
Intelligence behind it. What of the marvels of the age!--the results
of science!--the strange psychic prescience and knowledge of things
more miraculous yet to be!--these are but hints and warnings of the
approach of God himself--'coming in a cloud with power and great
glory'!"

As he thus spoke, he raised his hand out of old habit acquired in
preaching, and a ray from the after-glow of the sunken sun lit up
the jewel in the apostolic ring he wore, warming its pale green
lustre to a dim violet spark as of living fire. His fine features
were for a moment warm with fervour and feeling,--then,--suddenly,
he thought of the great world outside all creeds,--of the millions
and millions of human beings who neither know nor accept Christ,--of
the Oriental races with their intricate and beautiful systems of
philosophy,--of savage tribes, conquered and unconquered,--of fierce
yet brave Turkish warriors who are, with all their faults, at any
rate true to the faith they profess--and lastly--more than all--of
the thousands upon thousands of Christians in Christian lands, who
no more believe in Him whose holy name they take in vain, than in
any Mumbo-Jumbo fetish of untaught barbarians. Were these to perish
utterly? Had THEY no immortal souls to save? Had the churches been
at work for eighteen hundred years and more, to bring about no