'"Grander is Death than Life, and sweeter far The splendors of the Infinite Future, than our eyes, Weary with tearful watching, yet can see"-condemns himself as a positive lunatic! And young Alwyn too!--he who had so completely recognized the foolishness and futility of expecting any other life than this one! Good heavens! ... "Nourhalma," as I understand it, is a sort of pagan poem--but with such incredible ideas and sentiments as are expressed in it, the author might as well go and be a Christian at once!' And with that he hobbled off, for it was Sunday afternoon, and he was on his way to St. George's Hall to delight the assembled skeptics, by telling them in an elaborate lecture what absurd animalculae they all were!"
Alwyn smiled. There was a soft light in his eyes, an expression of serene contentment on his face.
"Poor old Moxall!" he said gently--"I am sorry for him! He makes life very desolate, both for himself and others who accept his theories. I'm afraid his disappointment in me will have to continue, . . for as it happens I AM a Christian,--that is, so far as I can, in my unworthiness, be a follower of a faith so grand, and pure, and TRUE!"
Villiers started, . . his month opened in sheer astonishment, . . he could scarcely believe his own ears, and he uttered some sound between a gasp and an exclamation of incredulity. Alwyn met his widely wondering gaze with a most sweet and unembarrassed calm.
"How amazed you look!" he observed, half playfully,--"Religion must be at a very low ebb, if in a so-called Christian country you are surprised to hear a man openly acknowledge himself a disciple of the Christian creed!"
There was a brief pause, during which the chiming clock rang out the hour musically on the stillness. Then Villiers, still in a state of most profound bewilderment, sat down deliberately in a chair opposite Alwyn's, and placed one hand familiarly on his knee.
"Look here, old fellow," he said impressively, "do you really MEAN it! ... Are you 'going over' to some Church or other?"
Alwyn laughed--his friend's anxiety was so genuine.
"Not I!"--he responded promptly.. "Don't be alarmed, Villiers,--I am not a 'convert' to any particular set FORM of faith,--what I care for is the faith itself. One can follow and serve Christ without any church dogma. He has Himself told us plainly, in words simple enough for a child to understand, what He would have us to do, . . and though I, like many others, must regret the absence of a true Universal Church where the servants of Christ may meet altogether without a shadow of difference in opinion, and worship Him as He should be worshipped, still that is no reason why I should refrain from endeavoring to fulfil, as far as in me lies, my personal duty toward Him. The fact is, Christianity has never yet been rightly taught, grasped or comprehended,--moreover, as long as men seek through it their own worldly advantage, it never will be,--so that the majority of the people are really as yet ignorant of its true spiritual meaning, thanks to the quarrels and differences of sects and preachers. But, notwithstanding the unhappy position of religion at the present day, I repeat, I am a Christian, if love for Christ, and implicit belief in Him, can make me so."