s which became
increasingly insistent as the years went on. He had entered the
seminary at the tender age of twelve, his mind wholly unformed, but
protesting even then. All through his course he had sought what
there was in Christianity upon which he could lay firm hold. In
the Church he had found an ultra-conservative spirit and extreme
reverence for authority. Tito had told him that it was the equivalent
of ancestor-worship. But when he one day told his instructors that he
was not necessarily a disbeliever in the Scriptures because he did
not accept their interpretation of them, he could not but realize
that Tito had come dangerously near the truth. His translation of
the Greek Testament had forced him to the conclusion that much of the
material contained in the Gospels was not Jesus' own words, but the
commentaries of his reporters; not the Master's diction, but
theological lecturing by the writers of the Gospels. Moreover, in
the matter of prayer, especially, he was all at sea. As a child he had
spent hours formulating humble, fervent petitions, which did not seem
to draw replies. And so there began to form within his mind a
concept, faint and ill-defined, of a God very different from that
canonically accepted. He tried to believe that there was a Creator
back of all things, but that He was inexorable Law. And the lad
was convinced that, somehow, he had failed to get into harmony with
that infinite Law. But, in that case, why pray to Law? And, most
foolish of all, why seek to influence it, whether through Virgin or
Saint? And, if God is a good Father, why ask Him to _be_ good? Then,
to his insistent question, "_Unde Deus_?" he tried to formulate
the answer that God is Spirit, and omnipresent. But, alas! that
made the good God include evil. No, there was a terrible human
misunderstanding of the divine nature, a woeful misinterpretation.
He must try to ask for light in the character of the Christ. But
then, how to assume that character? Like a garment? Impossible! "Oh,
God above," he wailed aloud again and again, "I don't know what to
believe! I don't know what to think!" Foolish lad! Why did he think
at all, when there were those at hand to relieve him of that
onerous task?

And so, at last, Jose sought to resign himself to his fate, and,
thrusting aside these mocking questions, accept the opportunities for
service which his tutors so wisely emphasized as the Church's special
offering to him. He yielded to their en