His cheeks were burning, and with a deep breath he looked about him as
though to find an adversary with whom he might measure his strength. The
horrible sermon was ended and the words of the chanting crowd fell on his
ear. "Lord, reward me not according to mine iniquities!" The load of
his own sin fell on his heart again, and his dying father's curse; his
proud head drooped on his breast, and he said to himself that his burthen
was too heavy for him to venture on the bold flight for which he had but
now spread his wings. The ban was not yet lifted; he was not yet
redeemed from its crushing weight. But the mere word "redeemed" brought
to his mind the image of Him who took on Himself the sins of the world;
and the more deeply he contemplated the nature of the Saviour whom he had
loved from his childhood, the more surely he felt that it would be doing
no violence to the freedom of his own will, but rather be the fulfilment
of a long-felt desire, if he were to tell Jesus simply all that oppressed
him; that his love for Him, his faith in Him, had a saving power even for
his soul. He lifted up his eyes and heart to Him, and to Him, as to a
trusted friend, confided all that troubled and hindered him and besought
His aid.

In loving Him, he and Paula were one, he knew, though they had not the
same idea of His nature.

Orion, as he meditated, thought out the points on which her views
deviated from his own: she believed that the divine and the human natures
were distinct in the person of Christ. And as he reflected on this
creed, till now so horrible in his eyes, he felt that the unique
individuality of the Saviour, shedding forth love and truth, came home to
him more closely when he pictured Him perfect and spotless, yet feeling
as a man; walking among men with all their joy in life in His heart,