THE very next day he called again. "It's all right," he said. "The girl is free to go where she chooses. Now I want to ask you a question. Where do you go to church?" "I attend -Church. Dr. M- is my pastor." "But you're not a member." "Oh, yes! I have been for a great many years." His countenance expressed real disappointment. "I could have sworn you didn't believe in such humbug." "O Mr. Lambert, don't say so!" Marion'! eyes filled with tears. She had always supposed that he was a Christian and a member of some church. "I've never seen any cant about you. In fact, I took it for granted that you were a good, common-sense girl. Why, all that nonsense about joining a church and taking an oath that you believe such and such doctrines has exploded long ago!" "Don't you believe any doctrines?" "I believe this: that it's the life we must look to. Why, I've seen men,—and women too,—who swallowed the whole creed, covers and all, stiff and straitlaced, thought it a sin to smile, but who wouldn't give a penny to a poor man to save his soul. I'm sick of this talk about doctrine. Give me the life,—that's what I look at." "But how shall we know how to live unless we study God's Word? We have exact directions there,—and these are what I call doctrines. I am sure you believe that Jesus Christ came to set us an example of a perfect life." "I'll allow that for the sake of argument." "Did He ever sin?" "Not that I ever heard of, but I don't know much about it." "Can you name any other man who ever lived without sin?" "Perhaps not. I always said the world was up side down. But what does that prove? I don't know what you are driving at." "Then the claim of Jesus Christ himself, that He was the Son of God, in a peculiar sense,—that no man can come to the Father except through Him,—is a claim we must acknowledge." "I don't know anything about that. You are taking too much for granted." "Why, if any other man should claim to be divine, saying, in plain terms, 'I and my Father are one,' he would be seized and punished for blasphemy. It would be monstrous, presumptuous in the last degree. The fact that Jesus Christ claimed that he was one with the Father, the fact that he was a sinless being, and could not therefore be such a wicked impostor, that he proved his assertion by his life, his teachings, and his power to work miracles, is the great central truth on which Christianity is based. If you read your Bible prayerfully, as I earnestly hope you do, you must concede so much." Mr. Lambert twirled his glove, looked grave, and then said, "Well, what of that?" "How do you suppose the world came to be upside down, Mr. Lambert?" "Can't say. Can vouch for the fact, though. Everything and everybody is helter-skelter." "Including Mr. Regy, I suppose." "Yes; he is as bad as any of them." "And needs a power out of himself to put him right." "That's true."