use, not for endless
burial!"

"I? My dear Miss Carmen, it is I who preach the risen Christ!"

"You preach human theology, Mr. Moore," returned the girl. "And
because of centuries of such preaching the world has steadily sunk
from the spiritual to the material, and lip service has taken the
place of that genuine spiritual worship which knows no evil, and
which, because of that practical knowledge, heals the sick and raises
the dead."

"You insinuate that--?"

"No, I state facts," said Carmen. "Paul made some mistakes, for he was
consumed with zeal. But he stated truth when he said that the second
coming of Christ would occur when the 'old man' was put off. We have
been discussing the 'old man' to-night, and showing how he may be put
off. Now do you from your pulpit teach your people how that may be
done?"

"I teach the vicarious atonement of the Christ, and prepare my flock
for the world to come," replied the minister with some heat.

"But I am interested in the eternal present," said the girl, "not in a
suppositional future. And so was Jesus. The world to come is right
here. 'I am that which is, and which was, and which is to come,' says
the infinite, ever-present mind, God!"

"I see no Christianity whatsoever in your speculative philosophy,"
retorted the minister. "If what you say is true, and the world should
accept it, all that we have learned in the ages past would be blotted
out, and falsehood would be written across philosophy, science, and
religion. By wafting evil lightly aside as unreal, you dodge the
issue, and extend license to all mankind to indulge it freely. Evil is
an awful, a stupendous fact! And it can not be relegated to the realm
of shadow, as you are trying to do!"

"Did Jesus regard it as a reality?" she asked. "You know, Duns Scotus
said: 'Since there is no real being outside of God, evil has no
substantial existence. Perfection and reality are synonyms, hence
absolute imperfection is synonymous with absolute unreality.' Did
Jesus know less than this man? And do you really think he looked upon
evil as a _reality_?"

"He most certainly did!"

"Then, if that is true," said the girl, "I will have to reject him.
But come, we are right up to the point of discussing him and his
teachings, and that will be the subject of our next meeting. Will you
join us, Mr. Moore? It is love, you know, that has drawn us all
together. You'll come?"

"It's an open forum, Moore," said the doctor, patting