e
reached the end; then he shut the book and spoke to them.

"Brethren!" said the ringing voice, "this day is come Christ unto you,
that He may awake you out of sleep. And if ye have not heretofore heard
His voice, your sleep, like Lazarus, is that of very death. Now, O ye
dead, hear the voice of the Son of God, and live. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Him. Ye must come at God neither by mass, nor by
penance, nor by confessing, nor by alms-giving, but alonely by Christ.
And him that cometh will Christ in nowise cast out. No thief will He
turn away; no murderer shall hear that he hath overmuch sinned for
pardon; no poor soul shall be denied the unsearchable riches; no weary
heart shall seek for rest and find none. Yea, He is become Christ--that
is, God and man together--for this very thing, that He might give unto
every one of you that will have them, His pardon and His peace. Come
ye, every one of you, this day, and put this Christ unto the test."

Without another word the Black Friar descended from the desk, and passed
along the nave to the western door with long, rapid strides. And Agnes
went home with her heart full.

Full--with what strange and new thoughts! No masses, no penances, no
confessions, no alms-givings, to be the means of reconciliation with
God; but only Christ. And was it possible that the Friar meant one
other thing which, he had not said--no intercession of saints? If
Christ were so ready to receive and bless all who would come--if He were
Himself the Mediator for man with God--could He need a mediator in His
turn?

Yet if not, thought Agnes with a feeling of sudden terror as the
supposition came to her, what became of the intercession of Mary? She
who was held up as the Lady of Sorrows--just as Isis, and Cybele, and
Hertha had been before her, but of that Agnes knew nothing--she who was
pictured by the Church as the fountain of mercy and compassion--the
maiden who could sympathise with the griefs of womanhood, the mother who
had influence with, yea, authority over, the divine Son--what place did
Friar Laurence find for her in his teaching? The mere imagination of a
religion without Mary, was like the thought of chaos. Hitherto she had
been the motive-power of all piety to Agnes Stone. A sermon without our
Lady! It was shocking even to think of it.

Had Agnes been in the regular habit of attendance at Saint Paul's Cross,
she would have heard many such sermons during the reig