my church would not be falling into decay. Even the people in whose behalf we have fought are leaving us."
"That is because, in these times, they are too ill-clothed, too hungry, too wretched to come to church. They do not realize that for these very reasons they stand in greater need of the consolation of religion."
"True. But you can't thrust religion down the throat of a man who is perishing from hunger. And the thought that distresses me is that I may have been in some way or to some extent responsible for all this suffering. If I had not preached to the laboring men, as I have, the gospel of discontent with things as they are, it may be that these dreadful days would not have come."
He rose from his chair and began pacing up and down the room. She saw that he was in distress, and that if she would help him she must refute his argument.
"You have simply preached God's truth to them," she declared. "If they have profited by it to seek to better their condition, that fact redounds to your credit. It is those who oppress them who are responsible for this frightful situation; it is not you, nor your teachings, nor because the men have followed you."
He was still walking rapidly up and down the room.
"But, Miss Tracy," he asked, "if I am right why are not the men of my parish with me? If they were with me to-day, if we were acting as one, Christ Church would be a power in the alleviation of distress. As it is we are almost helpless."
At that her anger rose. She had not been able to forgive the men who were permitting Christ Church and its charities to go to wreck in a time like this, because of their resentment toward the rector.
"They are not with you because their hearts are evil," she declared. "Because they have no conception of the real meaning of Christ's religion. They are not Christians. They are scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! I detest them!"
