ung brother, did you want to
see me on any--BUSINESS?"

"I did. I was trying to tell you. My great-grandfather--"

"Couldn't you begin with more modern times?"

"The story begins back there," insisted the lad, firmly. "The part of
it, at least, that affects me. My great-grandfather founded a church
free to all Christian believers. It stands in our neighborhood. I have
always gone there. I joined the church there. All the different
denominations in our part of the country have held services there.
Sometimes they have all had services together. I grew up to think they
were all equally good Christians in their different ways."

"Did you?" inquired the pastor. "You and your grandfather and Voltaire
must ALL be kin to each other."

His visage was not pleasant.

"My trouble since coming to College," said the lad, pressing across the
interruption, "has been to know which IS the right church--"

"Are you a member of THIS church?" inquired the pastor sharply, calling
a halt to this folly.

"I am."

"Then don't you know that it is the only right one?"

"I do not. All the others declare it a wrong one. They stand ready to
prove this by the Scriptures and do prove it to their satisfaction.
They declare that if I become a preacher of what my church believes, I
shall become a false teacher of men and be responsible to God for the
souls I may lead astray. They honestly believe this."

"Don't you know that when Satan has entered into a man, he can make him
honestly believe anything?"

"And you think it is Satan that keeps the other churches from seeing
this is the only right one?"

"I do! And beware, young man, that Satan does not get into YOU!"

"He must be in me already." There was silence again, then the lad
continued.

"All this is becoming a great trouble to me. It interferes with my
studies--takes my interest out of my future. I come to you then. You
are my pastor. Where is the truth--the reason--the proof--the
authority? Where is the guiding LAW in all this? I must find THE LAW
and that quickly."

There was no gainsaying his trouble: it expressed itself in his eyes,
voice, entire demeanor. The pastor was not seeing any of these things.
Here was a plain, ignorant country lad who had rejected his logic and
who apparently had not tact enough at this moment to appreciate his own
effrontery. In the whole sensitiveness of man there is no spot so
touchy as the theological.

"Have you a copy of the New Testament?"