t of the lost. This,
however, they all have in common--eternal separation from the Divine
Being."

"Even if they repent and desire to be reunited to Him?"

"Certainly; that must be part of their suffering."

"And yet you believe in a good God?"

"In what else could I believe, even without revelation? But goodness,
divine goodness, is far from excluding severity and wrath, and even
vengeance. Here the witness of science and of history are in accord with
that of the Christian Church; their first manifestation of God is
always of 'one that is angry with us and threatens evil.'"

The carriage had overtaken us and stopped now close to us. I rose to say
good-bye. Austyn shook me by the hand and moved towards the carriage;
then, as if checked by a sudden thought, returned upon his steps and
stood before me, his earnest eyes fixed upon me as if the whole
self-denying soul within him hungered to waken mine.

"I feel I must speak one word before I leave you, even if it be out of
season. With the recollection of last night still so fresh, even the
serious things of life seem trifles, far more its small
conventionalities. Mr. Lyndsay, your friend has made his choice, but you
are dallying between belief and unbelief. Oh, do not dally long! We
need no spirit from the dead to tell us life is short. Do we not feel it
passing quicker and quicker every year? The one thing that is serious in
all its shows and delusions is the question it puts to each one of us,
and which we answer to our eternal loss or gain. Many different voices
call to us in this age of false prophets, but one only threatens as well
as invites. Would it not be only wise, prudent even, to give the
preference to that? Mr. Lyndsay, I beseech you, accept the teaching of
the Church, which is one with that of conscience and of nature, and
believe that there _is_ a God, a Sovereign, a Lawgiver, a Judge."

He was gone, and I still stood thinking of his words, and of his gaze
while he spoke them.

The mists were all gone, now, leaving behind them in shimmering dewdrops
an iridescent veil on mead and copse and garden; the river gleamed in
diamond curves and loops, while in the covert near me the birds were
singing as if from hearts that over-brimmed with joy.

And slowly, sadly, I repeated to myself the words--Sovereign, Lawgiver,
Judge.

I was hungering for bread; I was given a stone.

CHAPTER VI

MRS. MOLYNEUX'S GOSPEL

"The room is all ready now," sai