When the Lord is known as the heart of every joy, as well as the refuge from every sorrow, then the altar will be known for what it is—an ecclesiastical antique. The Father permitted but never ordained sacrifice. In tenderness to his children he ordered the ways of their unbelieving belief.

So at least thought and said Wingfold, and if he did not say so in the pulpit, it was not lest his fellows should regard him as a traitor, but because so few of his people would understand. He would spend no strength in trying to shore up the church—he sent his life-blood through its veins, and his appeal to the Living One, for whose judgment he waited.

The world would not perish if what is called the church went to pieces. A truer church, for there might well be a truer, would arise out of her ruins. But let no one seek to destroy. Let him that builds only take heed that he build with gold and silver and precious stones, not with wood and hay and stubble! If the church were so built, who could harm it! if it were not in part so built, it would be as little worth pulling down as letting stand. There is in it a far deeper and better vitality than its blatant supporters will be able to ruin by their advocacy, or the enviers of its valueless social position by their assaults upon that position.

Wingfold never thought of associating the anxiety of the heiress with the unbelief of the bookbinder. He laughed with delight when some time later he learned their relation to each other.

The next Sunday Barbara was at church, and never afterward willingly missed going. She sought the friendship of Mrs. Wingfold, and found at last a woman she could heartily look up to. She found in her also a clergyman’s wife who understood her husband and fell thoroughly in love with his way of teaching people. Like Thomas, Helen never sought to make one in the parish a churchman, but tried to make everyone she had to do with a scholar of Christ, a child of his Father in heaven.

21. The Shoeing of Miss Brown

— Twenty-One —

The Shoeing of Miss Brown

Miss Brown was in need of at least one pair of new shoes, and her mistress had been waiting for an opportunity for a lesson in shoeing her. Therefore, two days later, on a lovely autumn evening, Barbara rode Miss Brown across the fields, avoiding the hard road even more carefully than usual.