me, a message of salvation, as he no doubt
honestly believes it to be, to savages who cannot understand it, or to
the people who were civilized when we were savages, and who don't want
it and won't have it.

"Mr. Maxwell has taken upon himself, if I may say so without offence, a
far nobler mission than this, a greater task, if possible, than that of
the noble men and women of all creeds, and no creed, who minister to the
wants of our own savages, by which I mean those who have been kept in a
state of savagery infinitely worse than that of the negro slave of
seventy years ago, by the necessities of the civilization which is no
more Christian than it is humane.

"Mr. Maxwell, by preaching that one famous sermon of his, has
constituted himself a missionary to the rich, to those who profess and
call themselves Christians, and yet are content to live utterly and
hopelessly unchristian lives. Friends, the man beside me has begun to
make himself the Savonarola of the twentieth century. Whether his creed
is ours or not, we must all agree that that sermon of his is the
beginning of a great and noble work. He told his wealthy and fashionable
hearers last Sunday that they could not be Christians unless they were
honest with God and their fellow men. As regards the first part, some of
us have different beliefs to his, but as regards the second, we are with
him heart and soul. If he can teach us to be honest with ourselves and
each other, he will have done more to conquer sin and vice, more to make
earth that human paradise that the poets and dreamers and prophets of
all ages have longed for and foretold, than all the churches and all the
creeds have done for the last two thousand years. It is a godly because
it is a goodly work, and--if there is a God--that God will bless him and
help him in it."

CHAPTER XXIII.

As the President sat down and Vane rose to his feet, quite a tumult of
mingled applause, "hear, hears," hissings and hootings rose up from the
strangely assorted audience.

Vane faced the half-delighted, half-angry throng with the perfect
steadiness of a man who has decided upon a certain course and means to
pursue it at all hazards. Curiosity reduced one portion of the audience
to silence, and a respectful anticipation the other. In the sea of faces
before him, Vane recognised several that were familiar to him. His
father, Carol, Dora, Ernshaw and Rayburn were there as a matter of
course. Several clerics, hi