And, with most of them,
that--probably, is exactly what would have happened. I am not sure but
you will consider me unsafe, and avoid me in the future," he added
whimsically.
Dan smiled at his words, though they revealed so much to him.
Dr. Harry went on, "We remain in the church, and give it our support, I
suppose, because we are dependent upon it for our religious life; because
we know no religious life outside of it. It is the only institution that
professes to be distinctively Christian, and we love its teaching in
spite of its practice. We are always hoping that some one will show us a
way out. And some one will!" He spoke passionately now, with deep
conviction: "Some one must! This Godless mockery cannot continue. I have
too much faith in the goodness of men to believe otherwise. I don't know
how the change will come. But it will come and it will come from men in
the church--men like you, Dan, who come to the ministry with the highest
ideals. But you must be careful, mighty careful, not for your own sake,
alone, but for the sake of the cause we both love. Some operations are
exceedingly dangerous to the life of the patient; some medicines must be
administered with care lest they kill instead of cure. Men like me, from
long experience with professional reformers, look with distrust upon the
preacher who talks about his church, even while we know that there is a
great need."
Thus Dr. Harry presented another side of the problem to his bewildered
friend--a phase of the question commonly ignored by every fiery reformer,
whose particular reformation is _the_ one--the only way.
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