ryant says of himself, "The
Calvinistic system of divinity I adopted of course, as I heard nothing
else taught from the pulpit, and supposed it to be the accepted belief
of the religious world." But it was not the "five points" which remained
in the young poet's memory and shaped his higher life. It was the
influence of his mother that left its permanent impression after the
questions and answers of the Assembly's Catechism had faded out,
or remained in memory only as fossil survivors of an extinct or
fast-disappearing theological formation. The important point for him,
as for so many other children of Puritan descent, was not his father's
creed, but his mother's character, precepts, and example. "She was
a person," he says, "of excellent practical sense, of a quick and
sensitive moral judgment, and had no patience with any form of deceit or
duplicity. Her prompt condemnation of injustice, even in those instances
in which it is tolerated by the world, made a strong impression upon me
in early life; and if, in the discussion of public questions, I have in
my riper age endeavored to keep in view the great rule of right without
much regard to persons, it has been owing in a great degree to the force
of her example, which taught me never to countenance a wrong because
others did."

I have quoted this passage because it was an experience not wholly
unlike my own, and in certain respects like that of Number Five. To
grow up in a narrow creed and to grow out of it is a tremendous trial
of one's nature. There is always a bond of fellowship between those who
have been through such an ordeal.

The experiences we have had in common naturally lead us to talk over
the theological questions which at this time are constantly presenting
themselves to the public, not only in the books and papers expressly
devoted to that class of subjects, but in many of the newspapers and
popular periodicals, from the weeklies to the quarterlies. The pulpit
used to lay down the law to the pews; at the present time, it is of more
consequence what the pews think than what the minister does, for the
obvious reason that the pews can change their minister, and often do,
whereas the minister cannot change the pews, or can do so only to a very
limited extent. The preacher's garment is cut according to the pattern
of that of the hearers, for the most part. Thirty years ago, when I was
writing on theological subjects, I came in for a very pretty share
of abus