"I'm going into Humbletop's class after this," said Builder Stott to President Lottson. "I was a little doubtful when this class was started whether it wouldn't sooner or later run things into the ground, and now it _has_ done it. Cottaway is a dangerous man, for all his knowledge and squareness. There are men here, members of our Church, that'll be as likely as not to swallow all that he said, and then what'll their faith amount to? I say that if any such nonsense gets a hold in this church it ought to be made a matter of discipline." "I think _I_ shall remain with the class," said President Lottson. "There is a great deal of what is said here that I can't approve of, but that is all the more reason that somebody with a cool head and quick wits should be on hand to prevent the orthodox faith from going to ruin." "I was very much interested in your remarks," said Broker Whilcher to the Judge. "Matthew Arnold has put forth some of the same views." "I am glad to hear it," replied the Judge. "They will save him from drifting into vacuity, and they will convince his readers of his honesty of purpose. I wish only that I could believe that such views had as strong a hold upon the Church as they have upon the outside world. Verily, Christ never spoke a truer saying than that 'a man's foes shall be they of his own household.'" CHAPTER VIII. AFTERMATH. The closing of that session of the Scripture Club, in which the nature and reward of righteousness was discussed, did not end the consideration of the subject. Mr. Radley himself determined that, at the next meeting, some one should move the rescinding of his own resolution to allow but one Sunday to a verse of Scripture; and several other members, among them Squire Woodhouse, Mr. Buffle, and Mr. Alleman, determined to put the resolution to death at the first opportunity. In the mean time, no member of the class, who went to and from the city on the little steamer _Oak-leaf_, nor any one who had occasion to visit the local post-office, was allowed to forget the subject, which, not for the first time, caused such widely differing theories to be offered. "You didn't have an opportunity to express your opinions last Sunday?" said Squire Woodhouse to Mr. Alleman, at the post-office on Monday evening, while the latter awaited the opening of the mail, and the former lay in wait for some one upon whom to expend his pent-up energies. "No," replied the teacher; "and I doubt whether the expression of them would have done any good. Men are always willing enough to be observers of a quarrel; but to take part in one generally passes for a sign of bad breeding, and the care that men have for the results of their bringing up is, under such circumstances, admirable beyond expression." "Oh, you're not exactly fair, I think," said the Squire. "Every member of that class thinks the case of faith _vs._ works is his own; he must be interested in one side or the other, for he believes eternity depends upon it."