"
He was bewildered. "But the church! You were speaking of the church."
"And the church and Christianity are one and the same of course." Again
with a touch of sarcasm, more pronounced, "You will tell me next, I
suppose, that a minister really ministers."
Dan was astonished and hurt. He had learned much of the spirit of
Christianity in his backwoods home, but he knew nothing of churches
except that which the school had taught him. He had accepted the church
to which he belonged at its own valuation, highly colored by biased
historians. Such words as these were to his ears little less than
sacrilege. He was shocked that they should come from one whose
personality and evident character had impressed him so strongly. His
voice was doubtful and perplexed as be said: "But is not that true
church of Christ, which is composed of his true disciples, Christian?
Surely, they can no more be separated than the sun can be separated from
the sunshine; and is not the ministry a vital part of that church?"
Miss Farwell, seeing him so troubled, wondered whether she understood
him. She felt that she was talking too freely to this stranger, but his
questions drew her on, and she was curiously anxious that he should
understand her.
"I was not thinking of that true church composed of the true disciples
of Christ," she returned. "And that is just it, don't you see? _This
true church that is so inseparable from the religion of Christ is so far
forgotten that it never enters into any thought of the church at all.
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