 the principles of
the church in Lantern Yard, according to which prosecution was forbidden to
Christians, even had the case held less scandal to the community. But the
members were bound to take other measures for finding out the truth, and they
resolved on praying and drawing lots. This resolution can be a ground of
surprise only to those who are unacquainted with that obscure religious life
which has gone on in the alleys of our towns. Silas knelt with his brethren,
relying on his own innocence being certified by immediate divine interference,
but feeling that there was sorrow and mourning behind for him even then - that
his trust in man had been cruelly bruised. The lots declared that Silas Marner
was guilty. He was solemnly suspended from church-membership, and called upon to
render up the stolen money: only on confession, as the sign of repentance, could
he be received once more within the fold of the church. Marner listened in
silence. At last, when every one rose to depart, he went towards William Dane
and said, in a voice shaken by agitation -
    »The last time I remember using my knife, was when I took it out to cut a
strap for you. I don't remember putting it in my pocket again. You stole the
money, and you have woven a plot to lay the sin at my door. But you may prosper,
for all that: there is no just God that governs the earth righteously, but a God
of lies, that bears witness against the innocent.«
    There was a general shudder at this blasphemy.
    William said meekly, »I leave our brethren to judge whether this is the
voice of Satan or not. I can do nothing but pray for you, Silas.«
    Poor Marner went out with that despair in his soul - that shaken trust in
God and man, which is little short of madness to a loving nature. In the
bitterness of his wounded spirit, he said to himself, »She will cast me off
too.« And he reflected that, if she did not believe the testimony against him,
her whole faith must be upset as his was. To people accustomed to reason about
the forms in which their religious feeling has incorporated itself, it is
difficult to enter into that simple, untaught state of mind in which the form
and the feeling have never been severed by an act of reflection. We are apt to
think it inevitable that a man in Marner's position should have begun to
question the validity of an appeal to the divine judgment by drawing lots; but
to him this would have been
