"Then, what about the world?" asked Mr. Radley. "Is nothing to be done _here_ for God--and man? Did we come into the world for no purpose but to get out of it in the best shape we can? Has God no purposes to fulfill here, or did he only make this wonderful combination of beauty and utility, that we call the world, to be a mere stage for blundering and wrong-doing?" "No," answered young Mr. Waggett; "it is to fit us all for entrance to the glorious company of angels, prophets, and martyrs." "We had better all die in infancy then," said Mr. Radley, "before we've been unfitted for such society, and been compelled to begin all over again. What a contemptible blunderer God must be, if the common religious idea of the use of the world is correct!" "Gentlemen," said Mr. Alleman, "it seems to me that this class has by this time plainly indicated its religious measure. We have met together many times; we have expressed our own views, and listened to many others; we have individually indicated considerable ability and ingenuity; but I am unable to discover that even a respectable minority have changed their beliefs. Of the sincerity of belief of those who have spoken there can be no doubt; but something more than ability and sincerity is necessary to retain usefulness for a body of men, who are determined to approach intellectually no nearer to each other. As we cannot agree intellectually, why can we not do so morally, and establish for the class a higher motive than can be furnished by religious curiosity or tenacity of special theological opinions? Free speech has been the distinctive feature of the class, but all that freedom of expression can gain for us has already been gained. Why cannot we, therefore, form a new and solemn compact that we will, each one according to his own special religious belief and light, strictly order our lives according to the moral ideas which we all admit are found in the Bible and are above criticism?" "What!" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel, "and turn a religious organization into a society for the encouragement of mere morality? None for me!" "I should consider such a course as religiously suicidal, if not blasphemous," declared Mr. Prymm. "The man who does it can bid good-bye to his property," said Mr. Hopper, "and I, for one, am determined to give a good account of my stewardship." "He can bid good-bye to his chance of salvation, too," said young Mr. Waggett, "if he's not going to think more of it than he does of mere morality." "Good-bye to his fun, too," suggested young Mr. Banty. "If we cannot leave all to follow Him," remarked Deacon Bates, who had once felt himself called to mission work, but successfully resisted the call, "it would certainly be unseemly to do so for the sake of mere worldly righteousness." "'Twould revolutionize society," said Lawyer Scott, "and no man should attempt such a thing without the most careful preparation."