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Show RANDOLPH CE5TIIL and LILLIAN CHESTER r T IWI ILLUSTRATED 4C.D.RH0DtS I -1 . mcO?POfAT0M ever swept the world without 11b attendant at-tendant supernatural phenomena, so no great spiritual revival has ever swept the world without its concreted symbol which men might wear upon their breasts. The cross! What shall be its successor? A ball of fire in the sky? Who knows! If that symbol of man's spiritual rejuvenation, of his renewed nearness to God, were, in reality, a ball of fire, Gail, I would hold it up iji the sight of all aiankind though it shrivelwd my armi" The thin treble note stole out of the organ loft, pulsing its timid way among the high, dim arches, as if seeking a lodgment where it might fasten ite tiny thread of harmony, and f row Into 'a song of new glory, the glory which had been born that day in the two earnest hearts beneath in the avenue of slender columns. The soft light from one of the clerestory windows flooded in on the compassionate son of man above the altar. The very air seemed to vibrate with the new inspiration in-spiration which had been voiced in the old Market Square chut-ch. Gail gazed up at Smith Boyd, with the first content con-tent her heart had ever known; content con-tent in which there was both earnestness earnest-ness and serenity, to rei.lace all her groping. He met her gaze with eyes in which there glowed the endless love which it is beyond the power of speech to tell. There was a moment of ecstasy, of complete understanding, of the per feet unity which should last throughout through-out their lives. In that harmony, they walked from the canopy of dim arches, out through the vestry, and beneath the door ubove which percb-3'.l the two gray doves cooing. For an i&atant Gail looked back into the solemn depths, and a wistfulness came into her eyes "The ball of fire," she mused. "When shall we see it in the sky?" THE ENTD. tioned in this book; nothing more, nothing less!" and taking a small volume vol-ume which lay on the table, he tossed It in front of Rev. Smith Boyd. It was the Book of CommoD Prayer, containing, in the last pages, the articles ar-ticles of Faith. Clark seized his hat and coat, and strode out of the door, followed by the red-faced Chisholm, who had also been asked to resign. Nicholas Van Ploon rose, and shook hands with Rev. Smith Boyd. "Sargent has told me about your plan for the new tenements," he stated. stat-ed. "I am in favor of buying the property." "We'll swing it for you, Boyd," promised Jim Sargent. "I've been talking with some of the other members, mem-bers, and they seem to favor the idea that the new Vedder court will be a great monument. There'll be no such magnificent charity in the world, and no such impressive sacrifice as giving up that cathedral! 1 think Cunningham Cunning-ham will be with us, when it comes to a vote." "Certainly," interposed Nicholas Van Ploon. "We don't need to make any profit from those tenements. The normal nor-mal increase in ground value will be enough." "Yes," said Cunningham slowly. "I am heartily in favor of the proposition." proposi-tion." "Coming along, doctor?" invited Manning, going for his coat and hat. "No, I think not," decided Rev. Smith Boyd quietly. He was sitting at the edge of the table facing the Good Sbeyherd, at the edge of whose robe still sparkled crystalline light, and in his two hands he thoughtfully held the Book of Common Com-mon Prayer. ChAPTErt XXX. Hand in Hand. Rev. Smith Boyd walked slowly out into the dim church, with the little vol ume in his hand. The afternoon sun had sunk so low that the illumination from the stained-glass windows was cut off by the near buildings, and the patches of ruby and of sapphire, of emerald and of topaz, glowed now near the tops of the slender columns, or mellowed the dusky spaces up amid the arches. It was hushed and silent there, deserted, de-serted, and far from the thoughts of men. The young rector walked slowly up the aisle to a pew in the corner near the main entrance, a,nd sat down, still with the little Book of Common Prayer in his hand, and, in the book, the Articles of Religion. From them alone must he preach; nothing more and nothing less. That was the duty for which he was hired. His own mind, his own intelligence, the reason and the spirit and the soul which God had given him were for no other use than the clever support of the things which thirty-nine articles of religion! Within With-in his grasp he had held a position of wealth, of power, of fame! He scarcely scarce-ly considered their loss; and in the ease with which he relinquished item, he kneiv that he was self-absolved from the charge of using his conscience con-science as a ladder of ambition! If personal vanity had entered into his desire to build the new cathedral, it had been incidental, not fundamental. It made him profoundly heppy to know this with positiveness. - He called up the house of Jim Sargent, Sar-gent, and asked for Gail. "Come over," he invited her. "1 want to see you very much. I'm in the church. Come in through the vestry." "All right," was the cheerful reply.1 "I'll be there in a minute." He had been very sly! He was tremendously tre-mendously pleased with himself! He had kept out of his voice all the longing, long-ing, and all the exultation, and all the love! He would not trust even one vibration of his secret to a cold telephone tele-phone wire! He set the door of the vestry open wide. Within the church, the organist had conquered that baffling run in the mighty prelude of Bach, and the great dim spaces up amid the arches were pulsing in ecstasy with the tremendous harmony. Outside, upon the background back-ground of the celestial strain, there rose a fluttering, a twittering, a cooing. coo-ing. The doves of spring had returned to the vestry yard. Just a moment and Gail appeared, poised in the doorway, with a filmy pink scarf about her shoulders, a simple sim-ple frock of -delicate gray upon her slender figure, her brown hair waving about her oval face, a faint flush upon her cheeks, her brown eyes sparkling, her red lips smiling up at him. He had intended to tell her much, hut instead, he folded her in his arms, and she nestled there, content. For a long, happy moment they stood, lost to the world of thought; and then she looked up at him, and laughed. "I knew it from your voice," she said. He laughed with her; then he grew grave, but there was the light of the great happiness in his gravity. "I have resigned," he told her. That was a part of what she had known. "And not for me!" she exulted. It was not a question. She saw that in him was no doubt, no quandary, no struggle between faith and disbelief. "I see my way clearly," he smiled down at her; "and there are no thorns to cut for me. I shall never change." "And we shall walk hand in hand about the greatest work in the world," she softly reminded him, and there were tears in her eyes. "But what work shall that be, Ted?" She looked up at him for guidance, now. "To shed into other lives some of the beauty which blossoms in our own." he replied, walking with her in- CHAFTER XXIX Continued. 19 ! "The decision does not lay in your hands. Doctor Boyd," drawled a nasal voice with an unconcealed sneer in it. It was clean-shaven old Joseph G. Clark, who was not disturbed, in so much as the parting of one hair, by all the adverse criticism of him which had filled column upon column of the daily press for the past few days. "The rector has never, in the history of Market Square church, been given the control of its finances. He has ii-variably ii-variably been hired to pr?a-;l the gospel." gos-pel." Sargenfc, o'inningham, Manning, and even Van Plocn looked at Clark in surprise. He was not given to open reproo?. Chisholm manifested no astonishment. as-tonishment. He sat quietly in his : chair, his fingers idly drumming on the edge of the table, but his mutton-chop mutton-chop beard was pink from the reddening red-dening of the skin beneath. "The present rector of Market Square church means to have a voice in its deliberations so long as he is the rector!" announced that young man emphatically, and Jim Sargent looked up at him with a jerk of his head. Rev. Smith Boyd was pale this afternoon, but there was a something shining through his pallor which made the face alive; and the something some-thing was not temper. Rufus Manning, Man-ning, clasping his silvery beard with a firm grip, smiled encouragingly at the tall young orator. "I have said that I have, so far as I am concerned, relinquished re-linquished the building of the cathedral," cathe-dral," the rector went on. "For this there are two reasons. The first is that Its building will bring us farther away from the very purpose for which the church was founded; the worship of God with an humble and a contrite heart! I am ready to confess that 1 found, on rigid self-analysis, my leading lead-ing motive in urging the building of the new cathedral to have been vanity. van-ity. I am also ready to confess, on behalf of my congregation and vestry, that their leading motive was vanity!" "You have no authority to speak for me," Interrupted Chisholm, his mut-. mut-. ton-chops now red. "This talk is absurd," declared Chisholm. "The city has taken Vedder Ved-der court away from us." "Only the property," quickly corrected cor-rected Rufus Mannijg, turning to Chiimolra wjth sliarpms in his deep blue eyes. "If you wiij remember, I told you this same thin before Doctor Doc-tor Boyd came to us. I have waited ever since his arrival for ton to develop de-velop to this point, ,:,J I vish to announce an-nounce nvjit-I as Bolidly supporting his ,ews." "Your own will not bear Inspection!" Inspec-tion!" charged Clark, turning to Manning Man-ning with a scowl. "I'll range up at the judgment seat with you!" flamed Manning. "We're both old enough to think about that!" Joseph G. Clark jumped tjj his feet and, leaning across the tabU. shook a thin forefinger at Manning. "I have been attacked encugh on the point of my moral standing!" he declared, de-clared, his high-pitched i.asal voice quaveripg with an anger le had held below '..he explosive point during the most c.f his life. "I can g-:and the attacks at-tacks of a sensational prejs, but when spiteful criticism follows me into my own vestry, almost in the sacred shadnw of the altar itself, I am compelled com-pelled to protest! I wiah to state to this vestry, once and for all, that my moral status is above reproach, and that my conduct has been such as to receive the commendation of my Maker! Ma-ker! Because it has pleased Divine Providence to place in my hands the distribution of the grain of the fields, I am constantly subject to the attacks of envy and malice! It has gone so far that I, last night, received from Rev. Smith Boyd, a request to resign from this vestry!" He paused In triumph tri-umph on that, as if he had made against Rev. Smith Boyd a charge of such ghastly infamy that the young rector must shrivel before his eyes. "I have led a blameless life! 1 have never smoked nor drunk! I have paid every penny I ever owed and fulfilled every promise..! ever made. 1 have obeyed the gospel and partaken of the sacraments, and the Divine Being has rewarded me abundantly! He has chosen me, because of my faithful "Splendor Is no longer the exclusive property of religion," resumed the rector, rec-tor, paying no attention to the Interruption. Inter-ruption. "If I thought, however, that the building of that cathedral would promote the spread of the gospel in a degree commensurate with the outlay, out-lay, I would still be opposed to the erection of the building; for the money does not belong to us!" "Go right on and develop our conscience," con-science," approved Manning, smiling up at the old walnut-beamed ceiling with its carved cherub brackets. "The money belongs to Vedder court," declared the rector; "to the distorted moral cripples which Market Mar-ket Square church, through the accident acci-dent of commerce, has taken under her wing. Gentlemen, in the recent revelations concerning the vast Industrial Indus-trial interests of the world, I have seen the whole blackness of modern corporate methods; and Market Square church is a corporation! I wish to ask you, in how far the Market Mar-ket Square church has been swayed, In its commercial dealings, by moral considerations?" He paused, and glanced from man to man of his vestry. Sargent and Manning, Man-ning, the former of whom knew his plans and the latter of whom had been waiting tor them to mature, smiled at him In perfect accord. Nicholas Van stewardship, to gather the food of earth from its sources and feed it to the mouths of the hungry; and 1 shall not depart from my stewardship in this church, because I am here, as I am everywhere, by the will of God!" Perhaps W. T. Chisholm was not shocked by this blasphemy, but the dismay of it sat on every other face, even on that of Nicholas Van Ploon, who was compelled to dig deep to find his ethics. "You infernal old thief!" wondered Manning, recovering from his amazement. amaze-ment. "Was it Divine Providence which directed you to devise the scheme whereby the railroads paid you two dollars rebate on every car of wheat you shipped, and a dollar bonus on every car of wheat your competitors com-petitors shipped? I could give you a string of sins as long as the catechism and you dare not deny one of them, because I can prove them on you! And yet you have the effrontery to say that a Divine Providence would establish estab-lish you in your monopoly, by such scoundrelly means as you have risen to become the greatest dispenser of self-advertising charities in the world! You propose to ride into heaven on your universities and your libraries, and on the fact that you never smoked nor drank nor swore nor gambled; but when you come face to face with were printed here. And who had formulated for-mulated these articles? Men; men like himself.' Rev. Smith Boyd suddenly made the discovery that he was not preaching God! He was preaching the church and its creed! Startled, now, he went through the thirty-nine Articles of Religion, one by one, slowly, thoughtfully, and with a quickened conscience. Reason knocked at the door of Faith, and entered; but it did not drive out Faith. They sat side by side, but each gave something to the other. No, rather, Reason stripped the mask from Faith, tore away the disguising cloak, and displayed dis-played her in all her simple beauty, sweet and gentle and helpful. What was the faith he had been called upoo to teach? Faith in the thirty-nine Articles Ar-ticles of Religion! This had been cleverly clev-erly substituted by the organizers of an easy profession, for faith in God, which latter was too simple of comprehension compre-hension for the purposes of any organization. or-ganization. For a long time Rev. Smith Boyd sat in the corner pew, and when he had closed the book, all that had been be hind the wall of his mind came out. and was sorted into heaps, and the bad discarded and the good retained. He found a wonderful relief in that. He had lived with a secret chamber tJ- f j.'5-taj'j n He Folded Her in His Arms. noon sat quite piaciaiy, wun nis hands folded over his creaseless vest. Willis Cunningham, stroking his sparse brown Vandyke, looked uncomfortable, un-comfortable, as if he had suddenly been Introduced into a rude brawl; but his eye roved occasionally to Nicholas Van Ploon, who was two generations ahead of him In the acquisition acqui-sition of wealth, by the prilllant process proc-ess of allowing property to increase In valuation. Chisholm glared. "You'll not find any money which is not tainted," snapped Joseph G. Clark, who regarded money in a strictly Impersonal Im-personal light. "The very dollar you have In your pocket may have come direct from a brothel." "Or from Vedder court," retorted the rector. "We have brothels there, though we do not 'officially' know it. We have saloons there; we have gambling gam-bling rooms there; and from all these Iniquities Market Square church reaps a profit! For the glory of God? I dare you, Joseph G. Clark, or W. T. Chisholm. to answer me that question ques-tion in the affirmative! No decent de-cent man would conduct the business we do, for the reason that it would soil his soul as a gentleman; and it Is a shameful thing that a gentleman should have finer ethics than a Christian Chris-tian church! In the beginning, I was a coward about this matter! It was because I wished to be rid of our responsibility re-sponsibility in Vedder court that 1 first urged the conversion of that property into a cathedral. We cannot can-not rid ourselves of the responsibility of Vedder court! If it were possible for a church to be sent to hell, Market Mar-ket Square church would hp eternally damnod if it took this added guilt upon It!" this hornoie new goo. you nave created, cre-ated, a deity who would permit you to attain wealth by the vile methods you have used, you will find him with a pitchfork in his hands! I am glad that Doctor Boyd, though knowing your vindictive record, has had bravery brav-ery enough to demand your resignation resigna-tion from this vestry! I hope he receives re-ceives it!" Joseph G. Clark had -remained standing, and his head shook, as with palsy, while he listened to the charge of Manning. He was a very old man, and It had been quite necessary for him to restrain his passions throughout through-out his life "Y'ou will go first!" he shouted at Manning. "I am impregnable; but you have no business on this vestry! Y'ou can be removed at any time an examination is ordered, for 1 have heard you, we have all heard you, deny the immaculate conception, and thereby the divinity of Christ, in whom alone there is salvation!" A hush like death fell on the vestry. Rev. Smith Boyd was the first to break the ghastly silence. "Gentlemen," said he, "1 do uot think that we are in a mood today for further discussion. 1 suggest that we adjourn." His voice seemed to distract the attention at-tention of Clark from Manning at whom he had been glowering. He turned on Rev. Smith Boyd the remainder re-mainder of the wrath which marked his first break into senility. "As for you!" he snarled, "you will keep your fingers out of matters which do not concern you! You were hired to preach the gospel, and you wl) CQn fine your attention to that occupation, preaching just what you find sanc- in his heart, hidden even from himself, him-self, and now that he had opened the door, he felt free. Above him, around him, within him, was the presence of God, infinite, tender, easy of understanding; under-standing; and from that God, his God, the one which should walk with him through life his friend and comforter and counselor, he stripped every shred of pretense and worthless form and useless ceremony! "I believe in God the Creator; the Maker of my conscience; my Friend and Father." The creed of Gail! For a moment the rector stood, tall and erect, then he stretched forth his arms: "1 know that my Redeemer liveth!" he said, and sank to his knees. Two high points he had kept in his faith, points never to be shaken; the existence of his creator, his mercy and his love, and the divinity of his son. who died, was crucified and buried, and on the third day arose to ascend unto heaven. Reason could not de stroy that citadel in a man born to the I necessity of faith! Man must believe some one thing. If it was as easy, as he had once set forth, to believe in the biblical account of the creation of the world as to believe In a pre-existent chaos, out of which evolutcd the spirit of life, and all its marvels of growing trees and flying birds and reasoning men, it was as easy to go one step further, and add the son to the father and to the holy ghost! Even chaos must have been created! Fully satisfied. Rev. Smith Boyd walked Into the vestry, and wrote 'lis resignation from the rectorship of Market Mar-ket Square church, for he could no longer teach, and preach, faith in the to the great dim nave, where the shadows still quivered with the under-echoes under-echoes of the mighty Bach prelude. "I have been thinking much of the many things you have said to me," he told her, "and particularly of the need, not for a new religion, but for a re-birth of the old; that same new impulse towards to-wards the better and the higher life which Christ brought into the world. 1 have been thinking on the mission of him, and It was the very mission to the need of which you have held so firmly. He came to clear away the thorns of creed which had grown up between the human heart and God! The brambles have grown again. The time is almost ripe, Gail, for a new quickening of the spirit; for the second sec-ond coming." She glanced at him, startled. "For a new voice in the wilderness," she wondered. "Not yet," he answered. "We have signs in the hearts of men, for there is a great awakening of the public con science throughout the world; but before be-fore the day of harvest arrives, we must have a sign in the sky. No great spiritual revival has ever swept the world without its attendant supernatural supernat-ural phenomena, for mysticism is a part of religion, and will be to the end of time. Reason, by the very nature of itself, realizes its own limitations, and demands something beyond its understanding un-derstanding upon which to hang its faith. It is the need of faith which distinguishes the soul from the mind." "A sign," mused Gail, her eyes aglow with the majesty of the thought. "It will cotr,e," he assured her, with the calm prescience of prophecy it self "A" :-u? great spiritual revival has |