her spirit. But we contend that
she is not the true church. 'To the law and to the testimony; if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them.' Brought to the touch-stone of God's revealed word, she is proved to
be reprobate silver; her creed spurious Christianity. In second
Thessalonians, second chapter, we have a very clear description of her as
that 'Wicked whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and
shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.' Also, in the seventeenth
of Revelation, where she is spoken of as 'Babylon the great, the mother of
harlots and abominations of the earth.'"

"How do you know she is meant there?" asked Isadore, growing red and
angry.

"Because she, and she alone, answers to the description. It is computed
that fifty millions of Protestants have been slain in her persecutions;
may it not then be truly said of her that she is drunken with the blood of
the saints?"

"I think what you have been saying shows that the priests are right in
teaching that the Bible is a dangerous book in the hands of the ignorant,
and should therefore be withheld from the laity," retorted Isadore hotly.

"But," returned Mr. Daly, "Jesus said, 'Search the Scriptures; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.'"

CHAPTER NINETEENTH.

"Let us go back again mother,
Oh, take me home to die."

"And so, Isa, my uncle's predictions that your popish teachers would
violate their promise not to meddle with your faith, have proved only too
true," said Calhoun Conly, stepping forward, as Mr. Daly finished his last
quotation from the Scriptures.

In the heat of their discussion, neither the minister nor Isadore had
noticed his entrance, but he had been standing there, an interested
listener, long enough to learn the sad fact of his sister's perversion.

"They only did their duty, and I shall not have them blamed for it," she
said, haughtily.

"They richly deserve blame, and you cannot prevent it from being given
them," he answered firmly, and with flashing eyes. "I have come, by my
mother's request, to take you and Virginia home, inviting Miss Reed to
accompany us."

"I am ready," said Isadore, rising, the others doing likewise.

"But you will stay to tea?" Violet said. "Cal, you are not in too great
haste for that?"

"I'm afraid I am, little cousin," he answered with a smile of
acknowledgment of her hos