"There are no other churches," said Dr. Humbletop. "There are societies, containing many well-meaning persons, which have works as a basis of organization. They have built edifices for worship, founded colleges and schools for the education of youth in their ideas, established newspapers, settled persons who, by courtesy, are called pastors, and formed societies which do much toward the amelioration of the physical condition of unfortunate humanity. The respect which they manifest toward portions of the Word of God renders it impossible to deny that they possess religious feeling and aspiration; but to admit that they constitute a portion of the body of which Christ is the head, is impossible. These persons, individually and in their associated capacity, war against the distinctive doctrine of the Church, which is, that Christ died for all men to make atonement for sin, that all men may become partakers in the benefits of this saving act by acknowledging him to be their Lord and Saviour." "There--I told you so," said the Squire to the teacher. "The Doctor has suggested a point of difference between the two great sections of the Protestant Church," said Mr. Alleman; "but that was not the subject upon which we were talking." "Why, yes, it was," said Builder Stott, who had been listening, while pretending to be otherwise engaged. "I heard every word of it." Mr. Alleman gave an impatient start. "I said the disagreement was between men, and not between ideas. Our good champion of orthodoxy, the Doctor, cannot, with due respect to his Maker, admit that there are any works of real value that are not prompted by a true belief in the principles enounced by Jesus. Faith implies trust; trust of the inferior in the superior signifies a willingness to be guided: the guidance of a Being in whose wisdom and love we have unlimited confidence _must_ be followed, if we really believe His utterances, and believe our own nature to be as imperfect and sinful as we profess to think it is." "Ah!" said Dr. Humbletop, "theories of human action may be very beautiful, but that very imperfection and sinfulness of man makes them of no effect. Logically, Mr. Alleman is perfectly correct, and, from his very assertions, the Church deduces the argument whereby she brings reason to the support of inspiration. Man is so imperfect, so sinful, so depraved, that, when he would do good, evil is ever present with him. This condition of man shows the absolute need of a Saviour, and, of course, a loving God will not allow his children to lack anything which they really need. Thus the need and the existence of a Saviour are established, by their interdependence upon each other." "That is hardly the point of our conversation," said Mr. Alleman. "The question between us was, whether there was not a similar interdependence between faith and works; whether, as either of them logically implies the other, either is not logically inclusive of the other."