are the rewards of a mind which searches
and craves, especially in these days when the fruit of so many able minds
lies on the shelves of library and bookshop. Since the last chapter was
written, many suggestions have come to me which I should like to have the
time to develop for this volume. But the nature of these elements is
positive,--I can think of nothing I should care to subtract.

Here, then, so far as what may be called religious doctrine is concerned,
is merely a personal solution. We are in an age when the truth is being
worked out through many minds, a process which seems to me both Christian
and Democratic. Yet a gentleman has so far misunderstood this that he
has already accused me, in a newspaper, of committing all the heresies
condemned by the Council of Chalcedon,--and more!

I have no doubt that he is right. My consolation must be that I have as
company--in some of my heresies, at least--a goodly array of gentlemen
who wear the cloth of the orthodox churches whose doctrines he accuses me
of denying. The published writings of these clergymen are accessible to
all. The same critic declares that my interpretations are without
"authority." This depends, of course; on one's view of "authority." But
his accusation is true equally against many men who--if my observation be
correct--are doing an incalculable service for religion by giving to the
world their own personal solutions, interpreting Christianity in terms of
modern thought. No doubt these, too, are offending the champions of the
Council of Chalcedon.

And does the gentleman, may I ask, ever read the pages of the Hibbert
Journal?

Finally, I have to meet a more serious charge, that Mr. Hodder remains
in the Church because of "the dread of parting with the old, strong
anchorage, the fear of anathema and criticism, the thought of sorrowing
and disapproving friends." Or perhaps he infers that it is I who keep
Mr. Hodder in the Church for these personal reasons. Alas, the concern
of society is now for those upon whom the Church has lost her hold, who
are seeking for a solution they can accept. And the danger to-day is not
from the side of heresy. The rector of St. John's, as a result of his
struggle, gained what I believe to be a higher and surer faith than that
which he formerly held, and in addition to this the realization of the
presence of a condition which was paralyzing the Church's influence.

One thing I had hoped to make clear, that if Mr. H