and no mercy, or else all mercy and no
justice: and the looser they hold by the revelation God has made of
Himself, the dimmer and the more out of proportion be their thoughts of
God. The most men frame a God unto themselves, and be assured that he
shall be like themselves--that the sins which he holds in abhorrence
shall be the sins whereto they are not prone."

"Are we not, in fine," saith Sir _Robert_, "so far gone from original
righteousness, that our imperfect nature hath lost power to imagine
perfection?"

"Not a doubt thereof," saith _Father_. "Look you but abroad in the
world. You shall find pride lauded and called high spirit and
nobleness: covetousness is prudence and good thrift: flattery and
conformity to the world are good nature and kindliness. Every blast
from Hell hath been renamed after one of the breezes of Heaven."

There was silence so long after this that I reckoned the discourse were
o'er. When all suddenly saith Sir _Robert_:--

"_Louvaine_, have you much hope for the future--whether of the Church or
of the world?"

"All hope in God: none out of Him."

"Nay, come closer," saith Sir _Robert_. "What shall hap in the next few
reigns?"

"`I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He come whose right it is:
and I will give it Him.' There is our pole-star, _Robin_: and I see no
other stars. `This same _Jesus_ shall so come.' `Even so, come, Lord
_Jesus_!'"

"Yet may He not be said to `come' by the Spirit shed abroad in the
hearts of men, and so the world be regenerated?"

"Find that in God's Word, _Robin_, afore He comes, and I will welcome it
with all my heart," answers _Father_. "I could never see it there. I
see there a mighty spread of knowledge, and civility [civilisation], and
communications of men--as hath been since the invention of printing, and
may be destined to spread yet much further abroad. But knowledge is not
faith, nor is civility _Christianity_. And, in fine, He is to come as
He went. He did not go invisibly in the hearts of men."

"But `the kingdom of God is within you.'"

"Ay, in the sense wherein the word is there used. The power of
_Christ_, at that time, was to be a power over men's hearts, not an
outward show of regality: but `He shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen Him go,' is a very different matter."

"Oh, of course we look for our Lord's advent in His own person," quoth
Sir _Robert_: "but I cannot think He will come to a sin-stained eart