ing, notwithstanding the superstitions and fanaticism which so
often dishonour His worship."

The sermon was no marked achievement in coherence, but neither was
Browett a coherent personality. It was, however, a swift, vivid
sermon--a short and a busy one, with a reason for each of its parts,
incoherent though the parts were. For Browett was a cynic doubter of his
own faith; at once an admirer of Voltaire and a believer in the
Established Order of Things; despising a radical and a conservative
equally, but, hating more than either, a clumsy compromiser. He must be
preached to as one not yet brought into that flock purchased by God with
the blood of His Son; and at the same time, as one who had always been
of that flock and was now inalienable from it. In a word, Browett's
doubt and his belief had both to be fed from the same spoon, a fact that
all young preachers of God's word would not have fathomed.

Thus our young rector proved his power. His future rolled visibly toward
him. During the rest of that service there sounded in his ears an
undertone from out the golden centre of that future: "_Reverend Father
in God, we present unto you this godly and well-learned man to be
ordained and consecrated Bishop--_"

Rewarded, indeed, was he for the trouble he had taken long months before
to build that particular sermon to fit Browett, after specifications
confided to him by an obliging parishioner--keeping it ready to use at a
second's notice, on the first morning that Browett should appear.

How diminished would be that envious railing at Success could we but
know the hidden pains by which alone its victories of seeming ease are
won!

The young minister could now meet Browett as man to man, having
established a prestige.

It had been said by those who would fain have branded him with the
stigma of disrepute that Browett's ethics were inferior to those of the
prairie wolf; meaning, perhaps, that he might kill more sheep than he
could possibly devour.

Browett had views of his own in this matter. As a tentative evolutionist
he looked upon his survival as unimpeachable evidence of his
fitness,--as the eagle is fitter than the lamb it may fasten upon.
Again, as a believer in Revealed Religion, he accepted human society
according to the ordinance of God, deeming himself as Master to be but
the rightful, divinely-instituted complement of his humblest
servant--the two of them necessary poles in the world spiritual.

One of