"I never have this sort of thing in my church,"--said Walden, bluntly, on one occasion--"My parishioners would not understand it."
"Why not teach them to understand it?" asked the Bishop, dreamily. They were standing together in the beautiful old Cathedral, now empty save for their presence, and Brent's eyes were fixed with a kind of sombre wistfulness on a great gold crucifix up on the altar.
"Teach them to understand it?" echoed Walden, with a touch of sorrow and indignation--"You are my Bishop, but if you commanded me to teach them these 'vain repetitions' prohibited by the Divine Master, I should disobey you!"
The Bishop flushed red.
"You disapprove?"
"I disapprove of everything that tends to put England back again into the old religious fetters which she so bravely broke and cast aside,"--said John, warmly--"I disapprove of all that even hints at the possibility of any part of the British Empire becoming the slave of Rome!"
Brent gave a weary gesture.
"In religious matters it is wiser to be under subjection than free,"--he said, with a sigh--"In a state of freedom we may think as we please--and freedom of thought breeds doubt,--whereas in a state of subjection we think as we MUST, and so we are gradually forced into an attitude of belief. The spread of atheism among the English is entirely due to the wild, liberty of opinion allowed tham by their forms of faith."
"I do not agree with you!"--declared Walden, firmly--"The spread of atheism is due, not to freedom of opinion, nor forms of faith, but simply to the laxity and weakness of the clergy."
The Bishop looked at him with a smile.
"You always speak straight out, John!" he said--"You always did! And strange to say, I like you all the better for it. I could, if I chose, both reprove and command you--but I will do neither. You must take your own way, as you always have done. But there is a flavour of Rome even in your little church of St. Rest,--your miracle shrine,--your unknown saint in the alabaster coffin. You and your parishioners kneel before that every Sunday."
"True--but we do not kneel to IT,--nor do we pray through It,"-- replied Walden--"It stays in the chancel because it was found in the chancel. But it does not make a miracle shrine' as you say,--there is nothing miraculous about it."