Now this is not a fair contract. It is really obtaining money under false pretences. The sky pilot has never been to Heaven himself. He does not know the way. Anyhow, there are hundreds of different routes, and they cannot all lead to the same place. Certainly they all start from this world, but that is all they have in common, and where they end is a puzzle. To pay money in such circumstances is foolish and an encouragement to fraud. The best way to pay for goods is on delivery; in the same way the sky pilot should be paid at the finish. But how is that to be done? Well, easily. All you have to do is to address the sky pilot in this fashion--"Dearly beloved pilot to the land of bliss! let our contract be fair and mutual. Give me credit as I give you credit. Don't ask for cash on account. I'll pay at the finish. Your directions may be sound; they ought to be, for you are very dogmatic. Still, there is room for doubt, and I don't want to be diddled. You tell me to follow your rules of celestial navigation. Well, I will. You say we shall meet at Port Felicity. Well, I hope so; and when we do meet I'll square up." Of course, it may be objected that this would starve the sky pilots. But why should it do anything of the kind? Have _they_ no faith! Must all the faith be on _our_ side? Should they not practise a little of what they preach? God tells them to _pray_ for their daily bread, and no doubt he would add some cheese and butter. All they have to do is to _ask_ for it. "Ask and ye shall receive," says the text, and it has many confirmations. For forty years the Jews were among the unemployed, and Jehovah sent them food daily. "He rained down bread from heaven." The prophet Elijah, also, lived in the wilderness on the sandwiches God sent him--bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening. There was likewise the widow's cruse of oil and barrel of flour, which supported her and the man of God day by day without diminishing. These things actually happened. They are as true as the Bible. And they may happen again. At any rate they _should_ happen. The sky-pilots should subsist on the fruits of prayer. Let them live by faith--not _our_ faith, but _their_ own. This will prove their sincerity, and give us some trust in their teaching. And if they _should_ starve in the experiment--well, it is worth making, and they will fall martyrs to truth and human happiness. _One_ batch of martyrs will suffice. There will be no need of what Gibbon calls "an annual consumption."