stand with Christ against the world,« said Mr. Benson solemnly,
disregarding the covert allusion to himself. »What have the world's ways ended
in? Can we be much worse than we are?«
    »Speak for yourself, if you please.«
    »Is it not time to change some of our ways of thinking and acting? I declare
before God, that if I believe in any one human truth, it is this - that to every
woman who, like Ruth, has sinned should be given a chance of self-redemption -
and that such a chance should be given in no supercilious or contemptuous
manner, but in the spirit of the holy Christ.«
    »Such as getting her into a friend's house under false colours.«
    »I do not argue on Ruth's case. In that I have acknowledged my error. I do
not argue on any case. I state my firm belief, that it is God's will that we
should not dare to trample any of His creatures down to the hopeless dust; that
it is God's will that the women who have fallen should be numbered among those
who have broken hearts to be bound up, not cast aside as lost beyond recall. If
this be God's will, as a thing of God it will stand; and He will open a way.«
    »I should have attached much more importance to all your exhortation on this
point if I could have respected your conduct in other matters. As it is, when I
see a man who has deluded himself into considering falsehood right, I am
disinclined to take his opinion on subjects connected with morality; and I can
no longer regard him as a fitting exponent of the will of God. You perhaps
understand what I mean, Mr. Benson. I can no longer attend your chapel.«
    If Mr. Benson had felt any hope of making Mr. Bradshaw's obstinate mind
receive the truth, that he acknowledged and repented of his connivance at the
falsehood by means of which Ruth had been received into the Bradshaw family,
this last sentence prevented his making the attempt. He simply bowed and took
his leave - Mr. Bradshaw attending him to the door with formal ceremony.
    He felt acutely the severance of the tie which Mr. Bradshaw had just
announced to him. He had experienced many mortifications in his intercourse with
that gentleman, but they had fallen off from his meek spirit like drops of water
from a bird's plumage; and now he only remembered the acts of substantial
kindness rendered (the ostentation all forgotten