“In thinking over this afterwards,” I continued, “it occurred to me that there were many _now_ acting the part of this cruel man. All teachers of error resemble him. Those lecturers, whom some of you men hear occasionally, and who tell you to believe in nothing you cannot see,—that as to your being bitten with the old serpent, _sin_, it is all a fiction, although, even whilst you are listening, you can hardly be still for the agony which the bites have inflicted; the Roman Catholic priest, too, who comes and tells us we need not _look for ourselves_, that his looking for us, or the intercession of the Virgin Mary, will do equally well—that at any rate we need not trouble _ourselves_,—are like this man in the picture. Then you yourselves sometimes stand in one another’s way; and when you see any eye directed aright, instead of removing all impediments, you rather, by your jesting, ridicule, and banter, cause the eye to be turned away. And what is it turned to? It just goes back to the old dreary state of ‘seeking rest, and finding none.’ Nothing ever strikes me so much in false teaching as its cruelty. These self-constituted leaders will see you suffer without relief, knowing, too, that bad as it is, this is only the beginning of suffering, they will still interpose themselves and their false doctrines between you and the look that would bring such healing and joy as you have never known before. It is something like this:—Suppose there was but one large fountain of water in the street from which the inhabitants could obtain their supplies, and that this fountain was in the keeping of one person, whose duty it was to open it to all who applied, and to allow them to help themselves as freely as they pleased; suppose, then, that instead of aiding you to fill your pitcher, he exercised a great deal of ingenuity in persuading you that if you carried it to the top of Notting Hill, or over to Kensington, perhaps you would get water which would answer your purpose much better—that the wells there had been more recently dug—that the water there would suit your particular constitution better; that he said anything, rather than allow you to supply your wants in the most simple and direct way—in the way intended and provided by one who really did know exactly what was adapted for you. “I should be sorry to undertake to persuade any of you to go this round-about way to supply your wants. Your own good sense would be stronger than any arguments I could possibly use. You would say, ‘It has answered the purpose for years past, and those who have gone before us have done very well upon it; why should I change?’