if he could believe in hell-fire, or if he could proclaim the Second
Advent, as Paul did to the Thessalonians, and get people to believe,
he might change their manners, but otherwise he could do nothing but
resort to a much slower process. With the departure of a belief in
the supernatural departs once and for ever the chance of regenerating
the race except by the school and by science. {2} However, M'Kay
thought he would try. His earnestness was rather a hindrance than a
help to him, for it prevented his putting certain important questions
to himself, or at any rate it prevented his waiting for distinct
answers. He recurred to the apostles and Bunyan, and was convinced
that it was possible even now to touch depraved men and women with an
idea which should recast their lives. So it is that the main
obstacle to our success is a success which has preceded us. We
instinctively follow the antecedent form, and consequently we either
pass by, or deny altogether, the life of our own time, because its
expression has changed. We never do practically believe that the
Messiah is not incarnated twice in the same flesh. He came as Jesus,
and we look for Him as Jesus now, overlooking the manifestation of
to-day, and dying, perhaps, without recognising it.

M'Kay had found a room near Parker Street, Drury Lane, in which he
proposed to begin, and that night, as we trod the pavement of
Portland Place, he propounded his plans to me, I listening without
much confidence, but loth nevertheless to take the office of Time
upon myself, and to disprove what experience would disprove more
effectually. His object was nothing less than gradually to attract
Drury Lane to come and be saved.

The first Sunday I went with him to the room. As we walked over the
Drury Lane gratings of the cellars a most foul stench came up, and