cting the elaborate machinery of
a diocese; and all his personal work is gone. I don't say he doesn't
impress people. But his strength lay in his personal work, his work as
a neighbour and a friend. He is not a clever man; he never says a
suggestive thing--he is not a sower of thoughts, but a simple pastor.
Well, I regard it as a huge and lamentable mistake that he should ever
have changed his course; and the motive that made him do it was a bad
one, only disguised as an angel of light. Instead of being the stoker
of the train, he is now a distinguished passenger in a first-class
carriage."

"Well," I said, "I admit that there is a good deal in what you say.
But if such a summons comes to a man, is it not more simple-minded to
follow it dutifully? Is it not, after all, part of the guiding of God?"

"Ah!" said my host, "that is a hard question, I admit. But a man must
look deep into his heart, and face a situation of the kind bravely and
simply. He must be quite sure that it is a summons from God, and not a
temptation from the world. I admit that it may be the former. But in
the case of which I have just spoken, my friend ought to have seen that
it was the latter. He was made for the work he was doing; he was
obviously not made for the other. And to sum it up, I think that God
puts us into the world to live, not necessarily to get influence over
other people. If a man is worth anything, the influence comes; and I
don't call it living to attend public luncheons, and to write
unnecessary letters, because public luncheons are things which need not
exist, and are only amusements invented by fussy and idle people. I am
not at all against people amusing themselves. But they ought to do it
quietly and inexpensively, and not elaborately and noisily. The only
thing that is certain is that men must work and eat and sleep and die.
Well, I want them to enjoy their work, their food, their rest; and then
I should like them to enjoy their leisure hours peacefully and quietly.
I have done as much in my twenty years of business as a man in a
well-regulated state ought to do in the whole of his life; and the rest
I shall give, God willing, to leisure--not eating my cake in a corner,
but in quiet good fellowship, with an eye and an ear for this wonderful
and beautiful world." And my companion smiled upon me a large, gentle,
engaging smile.

"Yes," I said, "you have answered well, and you have given me plenty to
think abo