at he condemned in others and especially in
Carl, in allowing the bishop to retain in his service a man who, in the
eyes of the law, was a criminal, the perpetrator of a great crime. He
concluded to write the bishop an hypothetical letter, describing this
case, asking his judgment; and in this way find out what course the
bishop would pursue if such a case should come into his life, and he
wrote the following:

"MY DEAR BISHOP ALBERTSON: To whom but you can I go for advice in an
important matter, which at this time is causing me much perplexity? I
feel sure that your conscientious judgment will help me to arrive at an
equitable conclusion. To you this may be hypothetical, but to me it is
much worse.

"Suppose, then, a young man, well born, and so far well trained, at
twenty years of age, away from home, falls into bad company, and,
yielding to temptation, commits a great crime, but, escaping by a bit of
sagacious stratagem, succeeds in causing his parents to believe that he
is dead and mourn him as such, wholly unsuspicious in their minds that he
has committed a crime. In the meantime he, in a distant land, lives a
useful and honorable life, deeply repenting the sad mishap of his life,
and fully redeeming his crime, so that no one but himself and the unhappy
parents suffer by his unfortunate act. Furthermore, he occupies a most
honorable and useful position, his employer, of course, knowing nothing
of his previous misdeeds. Now, as already has been inferred, this young
man is living a pure and honorable life, loved by all who know him; but
he claims that to reveal to his parents the fact that he is alive would
entail more and deeper sorrow upon them than to allow them to continue to
believe him dead. He declares that they would suffer less in believing
him dead than to know him to be a living criminal.

"Now, my dear Bishop, I write this note to you, calling it hypothetical;
but to me, it is more than hypothetical--it is a real case. This young
man is one of my patients, and I love him as dearly as if he were my own
son for his noble qualities and his sincere penitence, as well as for the
pure life he lives. His physical condition is indeed precarious, and I
feel sure that his life will be shortened unless he receives relief.
Kindly give me your righteous judgment of this case. I have his
confidence, and cannot betray it; hence the secrecy of this inquiry.

"Sincerely yours,

"MARMION."

A few days later the doct