Gilderman nodded his head. He did not say anything about his having seen the Man again--of having searched for Him for that special purpose, and he suddenly determined that he would not do so. "I don't want you to say anything about all this," he said; "I feel as though I had been making an ass of myself." "Well, I don't know about that," said West. "That's putting it rather strong. You were always fond of that sort of thing, and everybody knows that that's your peculiar lay. I don't see what you like about it, for my part, nor why you want to go hunting around in the cemeteries that way." "Well, I have had a dose of it this time," said Gilderman, "and I don't think I shall ever tamper with that sort of thing again." Stirling West puffed out a cloud of smoke and said nothing further. AN INTERLUDE WHEN a man conceives within his own mind an image of God with the intent to worship it, he does not, in worshipping it, really worship a God who is alive; he does not worship a God who made him and all mankind. That which he worships is only an image of God which he himself has created. Let any man think of this fact for a little moment and he will see that it is true. Suppose, for an instance, that, instead of an idea of God, you form in your mind an idea, say, of Cromwell, or of Washington, or of Napoleon, or of Lincoln. Is it not perfectly clear that that image is not the real living Cromwell, Washington, Napoleon, Lincoln, but only a mental picture of one of those men? You may cause that image--that mental picture--to seem to move and to speak and to assume different aspects; you may cause it apparently to will and to act, but it is not the real hero-man who so moves and speaks, wills and acts. It is only an imaginary speech and action of an imagined hero. The real man is exactly a different thing. He is of real flesh and blood, and his speech and action depend upon his own volition and not upon your imagination. You may, if you choose, decorate the image in your mind with the laurel wreath of hero-worship, and you may cause the most noble and exalted thoughts to seem to pass through the imagined hero's mind. But it is not the living man whom you crown, nor do those thoughts really pass through the brain of the living man. That which you crown is only your own idea--your own created image of the man; and the thoughts which seem to pass through his mind are, in reality, only your own thoughts which you cause to pass through your own mind. So it is exactly with the worship of God. For let the mind form ever so exalted an image of God, that image is, after all, only the creation of the mind; it is only a dead thing, and not the living fact. When a man prays to such an image of God, he prays not to the actual living Heavenly Father who created him, but to an image of God which he himself has created. For that image of God is no more really alive than the imagined hero is really a living man.