_Lucy_: "I didn’t mean to shock you again, but I couldn’t help it. I don’t know what’s come over me, but I’ve grown to _hate_ religion, and still more pretending to be religious. I’m sick of the Bible ... at least I mean of the Old Testament. It always makes me think of some wearisome old grandmother who says the same thing over and over again.... Who wrote it? That’s what _I_ want to know. How do we know the old Jews didn’t make it up and pretend it was inspired?" (John ejaculates a "_Lucy!_" of protest at intervals, but she is so carried away by a desire to express her revolt that she pays no heed.) "You know I’ve been trying to help Mr. Bayley in his translations by reading slowly bits of the Bible—just now we’re in Exodus. He _would_ begin at Genesis, even though I said all the people wanted was the Gospels—I don’t think I ever studied the Bible much at home and it all comes fresh to me as though I had never thought about it before.... Well, Exodus.... Have you ever read those chapters where Moses fasted—or said he fasted—for forty days and nights _without food or even water_ whilst he was writing down God’s sayings? ... How silly some of them sound.... How particular the Almighty seemed about the colours of the tabernacle curtains—blue, purple, and scarlet—and about the snuffers and the snuff-dishes being made of pure gold. And about the ’knops.’ ... What is a ’knop’? Poor Mr. Bayley can’t find the word in any dictionary. What can be the good of translating all this into Kagulu? It only puzzles the natives, Josiah told me. Mr. Bayley’s always losing his temper with Josiah because he can’t find the right Gulu or even Swahili word for some of these things in Exodus. Surely all you want to teach them is simple Christianity and how to live less like pigs and more like decent human beings...." _John_ (interposing at last, after he has cast his counter argument into words): "How can you teach them about Christ without first explaining what led up to Christ, the Fall and the Redemption? We want to give them the whole Bible, even if we don’t understand every passage ourselves. Every word of the Bible is inspired." (Lucy makes a mute protest.) "But oh! my Lucy ... what I feared and foretold has come to pass. This coquetting with Science has cost you your faith. Kneel down." (She knelt with him unwillingly on the little platform.) "Oh Lord," prayed John, most earnestly, "visit Thine handmaid in her sore need for Thy help! Dispel her doubts with the sunshine of—of—thy grace. Convince her of Thine Almighty Power and Wisdom and consecrate her to Thy service in this Heathen Land."