"There would be no need for you to bother about drink if you could
persuade people to give up flesh-eating. Vegetarianism is the cure of
all ills. It drives away disease and the craving for stimulants, it
gives you pure blood and a desire for the really simple life. I live in
a tent on ninepence a day and sleep in the open. I grow my own fruit and
vegetables and do my own cooking. Thoreau is my master and Carpenter my
friend. I hate smoky cities with their slums and their shambles and your
whole sickly civilization."

"Sickly!" repeats a Christian Scientist, with reproachful emphasis on
the word. The speaker is a woman of sixty, whose face bears the stamp of
successful self-discipline and a sound physique. "I have seen
vegetarians who looked extremely sickly. Before I became a Christian
Scientist I, too, sought health by various systems of diet. Now I know
that all disease is but an error of mortal mind, and in _Science and
Health_, by Mrs. Eddy, we are told----"

She was not allowed to finish her sentence, for a Congregational
minister, famous for his pulpit denunciations of sin, has risen and
gravely waves his hand to ensure a respectful hearing. "All you people,"
he says, in a voice vibrating with solemn indignation, "are pursuing
fleeting shadows. The kingdom of God is within. This false cult of
health by self-hypnotism, or health by living like the beasts in the
field, gives undue weight to things which, after all, relate to the
body. It is the _soul_ of man that is important, not where he lives or
what he eats. We need the fear of God and the thirst for His mercy; we
need the Divine guidance which will transform and sanctify our social
relations."

"And pray how has the Church dealt with the war?" cries the pacifist who
has now risen, his eyes ablaze with denunciation of the minister. "The
Christian Church--established or unestablished--is nothing but the
handmaid of the politician and the State, the servile echo of
capitalists and diplomatists. You talk of Divine guidance and the
sanctification of life. How do you respect life and the teaching of
Jesus Christ? Jesus said, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you
and persecute you.' You, His professed followers, bless war and its
orgies of hate. You stand by hypocritically thanking God for your own
sanctity, whilst Christians drench battlefields with the blood of
Christians. The abol