ritually man and wife. No consecration has taken place, Church or
no Church. If rebirth occurs later, to either or both, the individual
conscience--which is the Spirit, must decide whether, as regards each
other, they are bound or free, and we must stand or fall by that. Men
object that this is opening the door to individualism. What they fail
to see is that the door is open, wide, to-day and can never again be
closed: that the law of the naturally born is losing its power, that
the worn-out authority of the Church is being set at naught because that
authority was devised by man to keep in check those who were not reborn.
The only check to material individualism is spiritual individualism,
and the reborn man or woman cannot act to the detriment of his
fellow-creatures."

In her turn she was silent, still gazing at him, her breath coming
deeply, for she was greatly moved.

"Yes," she said simply, "I can see now why divorce between us would be
a sacrilege. I felt it, John, but I couldn't reason it out. It is the
consecration of the Spirit that justifies the union of the flesh. For
the Spirit, in that sense, does not deny the flesh."

"That would be to deny life," Hodder replied.

"I see. Why was it all so hidden!" The exclamation was not addressed
to him--she was staring pensively into the fire. But presently, with a
swift movement, she turned to him.

"You will preach this, John,--all of it!"

It was not a question, but the cry of a new and wider vision of his
task. Her face was transfigured. And her voice, low and vibrating,
expressed no doubts. "Oh, I am proud of you! And if they put you out
and persecute you I shall always be proud, I shall never know why it was
given me to have this, and to live. Do you remember saying to me once
that faith comes to us in some human form we love? You are my faith. And
faith in you is my faith in humanity, and faith in God."

Ere he could speak of his own faith in her, in mankind, by grace of
which he had been lifted from the abyss, there came a knock at the door.
And even as they answered it a deeper knowledge filtered into their
hearts.

Horace Bentley stood before them. And the light from his face, that
shone down upon them, was their benediction.

AFTERWORD

Although these pages have been published serially, it is with a feeling
of reluctance that I send them out into the world, for better or worse,
between the covers of a book. They have been written with revere