three incompatible things. When my brother grew older he came to
feel that independent and unflinching examination, with a
determination to abide by the results, would lead him to reject the
point which to my mother was more important than any other--I mean
the absolute accuracy of the Gospel records. My mother was
inexpressibly shocked at hearing my brother doubt the authenticity of
the Epistle to the Hebrews; and then, as it appeared to him, she
tried to make him violate the duties of examination and candour which
he had learnt too thoroughly to unlearn. Thereon came pain and an
estrangement which was none the less profound for being mutually
concealed.

This estrangement was the gradual work of some five or six years,
during which my brother was between eleven and seventeen years old.
At seventeen, I am told that he was remarkably well informed and
clever. His manners were, like my father's, singularly genial, and
his appearance very prepossessing. He had as yet no doubt concerning
the soundness of any fundamental Christian doctrine, but his mind was
too active to allow of his being contented with my mother's child-
like faith. There were points on which he did not indeed doubt, but
which it would none the less be interesting to consider; such for
example as the perfectibility of the regenerate Christian, and the
meaning of the mysterious central chapters of the Epistle to the
Romans. He was engaged in these researches though still only a boy,
when an event occurred which gave the first real shock to his faith.

He was accustomed to teach in a school for the poorest children every
Sunday afternoon, a task for which his patience and good temper well
fitted him. On one occasion, however, while he was explaining the
effect of baptism to one of his favourite pupils, he discovered to