sider if the brethren had
laid in a sufficient stock of firewood, and how long it would take him
to chop it into pieces handy for burning. He would be glad to relieve
the brethren from all such humble work, and for taking it upon himself
he would he able to plead an excuse for absenting himself from Mathias'
discourses. Hazael would not refuse to assign to him the task of feeding
the doves and the cleaning out of their coops; he would find occupation
among the vines and fig-trees--he was something of a gardener--and
Hazael would not refuse him permission to return to the hills to see
that all was well with the flocks. Jacob will need to be looked after;
and there are the dogs; and if they cannot be brought to look upon Jacob
as master their lives will be wasted, he said.

I seem to read supper in their eyes, he said, and having tied them up
supperless he visited the bitch and her puppies. Brother Ozias hasn't
forgotten to feed her. There is some food still in the platter. But they
must submit, he continued, his thoughts having returned to his dogs,
Theusa and Tharsa, and then he stood listening, for he could hear
Mathias' voice. The door of the lecture-room is closed; if I step softly
none will know that I have returned from the hills, and I can sit
unsuspected on the balcony till Mathias' allegories are ended, and
watching the evening descending on the cliff it may be that I shall be
able to examine the thoughts that assailed me as I ascended the
hillside; whether we pursue a corruptible or an incorruptible crown the
end is the same, he said. It was not enough for me to love God, I must
needs ask others to worship him, at first with words of love, and when
love failed I threatened, I raved; and the sin I fell into others will
fall into, for it s natural to man to wish to make his brother like
himself, thereby undoing the work of God. Myself am no paragon; I
condemned the priests whilst setting myself up as a priest, and spoke of
God and the will of God though in all truth I had very little more
reason than they to speak of these things. God has not created us to
know him, or only partially through our consciousness of good and evil.
Good and evil do not exist in God's eyes as in our eyes, for he is the
author of all, but it may be that our sense of good and evil was given
to us by him as a token of our divine nature. If this be true, why
should we puzzle and fret ourselves with distinctions like Mathias? It
were better