left our Master without accomplishing their
purpose. It would not be quite so hard as you think. He Himself says
that if a man only has a good will he is never lost. The will to live
for ever is the thing."

"What do you mean?" exclaimed Simeon. "His demands are quite
impossible."

"Must everything be taken so literally?" said James. "The Master
always puts the ideal high, and expresses it in lofty words, so that it
may the better stay in the memory."

Simeon waved them aside with his gold-encircled hand. "To give up all
I possess! To become horribly poor----?"

Then another disciple stepped forward, stood before him in a
sad-coloured garment, crying: "Look at us. Have we given up
everything? We never had much more than we have now, and what we had
we have still. Our brother Thomas has only one coat because he is
full-blooded; I have two coats because I easily feel cold. If I had
poor legs the Master would allow me an ass like Thaddeus. Every one
has what he needs. You need more than we do because you are accustomed
to more. But you cannot use all that you have for yourself. And yet
you need it for the many hundreds of men you employ, who work for the
good of the country, and live by you. I say that your property belongs
to you by right just as my second coat to me, and that you can quite
well be His disciple."

"You chatter too much, Philip," said James reprovingly. "If a man
makes a pilgrimage of repentance towards eternal life, he doesn't
travel like the Emperor of the Indies, or if he does, he doesn't know
what he wants. Believe me, noble sir, wealth is always dangerous, even
for life. The best protection against envy, hate, and sudden attacks
is poverty."

There was a third disciple, Matthew, with them, and he addressed
himself not to the stranger, but to his comrades, and said: "Brothers,
it must be clearly understood that he who desires the Kingdom of Heaven
must give up everything that causes him unrest; otherwise he cannot be
entirely with the Father. But you," turning to the great man from
Jerusalem, "you do not wish to break with the world? Well, then, do
one thing, love your neighbour. Keep your silken raiment, but clothe
the naked. Keep your riding-horse, but give crutches to the lame.
Keep your high position, but free your slaves. Only if you think what
is brought you from the fields, the mines, the workshops is yours, then
woe be to you!"

"I would willingly do one thing,