LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM


Mr Mark Marchurst was a very peculiar man. Brought up in the
Presbyterian religion, he had early displayed his peculiarity by
differing from the elders of the church he belonged to regarding
their doctrine of eternal punishment. They, holding fast to the
teachings of Knox and Calvin, looked upon him in horror for daring
to have an opinion of his own; and as he refused to repent and have
blind belief in the teachings of those grim divines, he was turned
out of the bosom of the church. Drifting to the opposite extreme, he
became a convert to Catholicism; but, after a trial of that ancient
faith, found it would not suit him, so once more took up a neutral
position. Therefore, as he did not find either religion perfectly in
accordance with his own views, he took the law into his own hands
and constructed one which was a queer jumble of Presbyterianism,
Catholicism, and Buddhism, of which last religion he was a great
admirer. As anyone with strong views and a clever tongue will find
followers, Mr Marchurst soon gathered a number of people around him
who professed a blind belief in the extraordinary doctrines he
promulgated. Having thus founded a sect he got sufficient money out
of them to build a temple--for so he called the barn-like edifice he
erected--and christened this new society which he had called into
existence 'The Elect'. About one hundred people were members of his
church, and with their subscriptions, and also having a little money
of his own, he managed to live in a quiet manner in a cottage on the
Black Hill near to his temple. Every Sunday he held forth morning
and evening, expounding his views to his sparse congregation, and
was looked upon by them as a kind of prophet. As a matter of fact,
the man had that peculiar power of fascination which seems to be