material_ equality--only in the bonds of love to help one another
attain their _moral_ welfare on earth and their last end in heaven. Most
pointedly does his Holiness further rebuke this effeminacy of universal
brotherhood by stating that equality exists among the social members
only in this: that all men have their origin in God the Creator, have
sinned in Adam, and have been equally redeemed into eternal life by the
sacrifice of our Lord.

"Upon these two rocks--of original sin and of prince and subject, riches
and poverty--by divine right, the Catholic Church has taken its stand;
and within this church will the final battle be fought on these issues.
Thank God He has found my humble self worthy to fight upon His side
against the hordes of infidelity and the preachers of an unchristian
social equality!"

There were little exclamations about the table as Whittaker finished and
returned at last to his fish. To Father Riley it occurred that these
would have been more communicative, more sentient, but for his presence.
In fact, there presently ensued an eloquent silence in lieu of remarks
that might too easily have been indiscreet.

"Pray, never mind me at all, gentlemen--I'll listen blandly whilst I
disarticulate this beautiful bird."

"I say one is quite as extreme as the other," again declared the
discoverer of this fact, feeling that his perspicacity had not been
sufficiently remarked.

"I dare say Whittaker is meditating a bitter cynicism," suggested Father
Riley.

"Concerning that incandescent but unfortunate young man," remarked the
amiable Presbyterian--"I trust God's Providence to care for children and
fools--"

"And yet I found his remarks suggestive," said the twinkling-eyed
Methodist. "That is, we asked for the belief of the average
non-church-goer--and I dare say he gave it to us. It occurs to me
further that he has merely had the wit to put in blunt, brutal words
what so many of us declare with academic flourishes. We can all name a
dozen treatises written by theologians ostensibly orthodox which
actually justify his utterances. It seems to me, then, that we may
profit by his blasphemies."

"How?" demanded Whittaker, with some bluntness.

"Ah--that is what the Church must determine. We already know how to
reach the heathen, the unbookish, the unthinking--but how reach the
educated--the science-bitten? It is useless to deny that the brightest,
biggest minds are outside the Church--indifferentists