wisdom he saith again, `Be not confident in a plain way.'" [Note
5.]

"But it is all nonsense to say `we must act,'" resumed Haimet. "We need
not act in any way unless we choose. How am I acting if I sit here and
do nothing?"

"Unless you are resting after work is done, you are setting an example
of idleness or indecision. Not to do, is sometimes to do in a most
effectual way. Not to hinder the doing of evil, when it lies in your
power, is equivalent to doing it."

Haimet stared at Gerhardt for a moment.

"What a wicked lot of folks you would make us out to be!"

"So we are," said Gerhardt with a quiet smile.

"Oh, I see!--that's how you come by your queer notions of every man's
heart being bad. Well, you are consistent, I must admit."

"I come by that notion, because I have seen into my own. I think I have
most thoroughly realised my own folly by noting in how many cases, if I
were endued with the power of God, I should not do what He does: and in
like manner, I most realise my own wickedness by seeing the frequent
instances wherein my will raises itself up in opposition to the will of
God."

"But how is it, then, that I never see such things in myself?"

"Your eyes are shut, for one thing. Moreover, you set up your own will
as the standard to be followed, without seeking to ascertain the will of
God. Therefore you do not see the opposition between them."

"Oh, I don't consider myself a saint or an angel. I have done foolish
things, of course, and I dare say, some things that were not exactly
right. We are all sinners, I suppose, and I am much like other people.
But taking one thing with another, I think I am a very decent fellow. I
can't worry over my `depravity,' as you do. I am not depraved. I know
several men much worse than I am in every way."

"Is that the ell-wand by which God will measure you? He will not hold
you up against those men, but against the burning snow-white light of
His own holiness. What will you look like then?"

"Is that the way you are going to be measured, too?"

"I thank God, no. Christ our Lord will be measured for me, and He has
fulfilled the whole Law."

"And why not for me?" said Haimet fiercely. "Am I not a baptised
Christian, just as much as you?"

"Friend, you will not be asked in that day whether you were a baptised
Christian, but whether you were a believing Christian. Sins that are
laid on Christ are gone--they exist no longer. But sins that are