 »Over the unborn
our power is that of God, and our responsibility like His toward us. As we
acquit ourselves toward them, so let Him deal with us.«
 

                                  Chapter XXVI

I think if a person were ever excusable for losing track of the days of the
week, the circumstances excused me. Indeed, if I had been told that the method
of reckoning time had been wholly changed and the days were now counted in lots
of five, ten, or fifteen instead of seven, I should have been in no way
surprised after what I had already heard and seen of the twentieth century. The
first time that any inquiry as to the days of the week occurred to me was the
morning following the conversation related in the last chapter. At the breakfast
table Dr. Leete asked me if I would care to hear a sermon.
    »Is it Sunday, then?« I exclaimed.
    »Yes,« he replied. »It was on Friday, you see, when we made the lucky
discovery of the buried chamber to which we owe your society this morning. It
was on Saturday morning, soon after midnight, that you first awoke, and Sunday
afternoon when you awoke the second time with faculties fully regained.«
    »So you still have Sundays and sermons,« I said. »We had prophets who
foretold that long before this time the world would have dispensed with both. I
am very curious to know how the ecclesiastical systems fit in with the rest of
your social arrangements. I suppose you have a sort of national church with
official clergymen.«
    Dr. Leete laughed, and Mrs. Leete and Edith seemed greatly amused.
    »Why, Mr. West,« Edith said, »what odd people you must think us. You were
quite done with national religious establishments in the nineteenth century, and
did you fancy we had gone back to them?«
    »But how can voluntary churches and an unofficial clerical profession be
reconciled with national ownership of all buildings, and the industrial service
required of all men?« I answered.
    »The religious practices of the people have naturally changed considerably
in a century,« replied Dr. Leete; »but supposing them to have remained
unchanged, our social system would accommodate them perfectly. The nation
supplies any person or number of persons with buildings on guarantee of the
rent, and they remain tenants while they pay it. As for the clergymen, if a
number of persons wish the services of an individual for any particular end of
their own, apart from the general service of the nation, they can always secure
it,
