beginning to wonder whether counsels of
perfection may not serve its domestic interests with a higher efficiency
than the compromises effected by unprincipled politicians. It is in the
mood to listen to a teacher who speaks with authority; but in no mood
to listen to a war of words.

If religion cannot speak with one voice in the world, it had better
adjourn, like the plenipotentiaries of Sinn Fein and the representatives
of the British Government, to a secret session. It must come to an
understanding with itself, an agreement as to what it means, before
mankind will recover interest in its existence.

CHAPTER XIII

CONCLUSION

_The fashion of this world passes away, and it is with what is
abiding that I would fain concern myself._--GOETHE.

_The breadth of my life is not measured by the multitude of my
pursuits, nor the space I take up amongst other men; but by the
fulness of the whole life which I know as mine._--F.H. BRADLEY.

_We are but at the very beginning of the knowledge and control of
our minds; but with that beginning an immense hope is dawning on
the world._--"THE TIMES."

_The Ideal is only Truth at a distance._--LAMARTINE.

It is curious, if Christianity is from heaven, that it exercises so
little power in the affairs of the human race.

Far from exercising power of any noticeable degree, it now ceases to be
even attractive. The successors of St. Paul are not shaping world policy
at Washington; they are organising whist-drives and opening bazaars. The
average clergyman, I am afraid, is regarded in these days as something
of a bore, a wet-blanket even at tea-parties.

Something is wrong with the Church. It is impious to think that heaven
interposed in the affairs of humanity to produce that ridiculous mouse,
the modern curate. No teacher in the history of the world ever occupied
a lower place in the respect of men. So deep is the pit into which the
modern minister has fallen that no one attempts to get him out. He is
abandoned by the world. He figures with the starving children of Russia
in appeals to the charitable an object of pity. The hungry sheep look up
and are not fed, but the shepherd also looks up from his pit of poverty
and neglect, as hungry as the sheep, hungry for the bare necessities of
animal life.

This is surely a tragic position for a preacher of good news, and a
teacher sent from God.

If the Christian would know how far