An Ambitious Man

But each Sunday this successful robber occupied his high-priced

church pew, devoutly listening to the divine word.

He never failed to partake of the holy communion, nor was his right

to do so ever questioned.

The rector of the church knew his record perfectly; knew that his

gains were ill-gotten blood money, ground from the suffering poor by

the power of monopoly, and from confiding fools by smart lures and

scheming tricks. But this young clergyman, having recently been

called to preside over the fashionable church, had no idea of being

so impolite as to refuse to administer the bread and wine to one of

its most liberal supporters!

There were constant demands upon the treasury of the church; it

required a vast outlay of money to maintain the splendour and

elegance of the temple which held its head so high above many others;

and there were large charities to be sustained, not to mention its

rector's princely salary. The millionaire pewholder was a liberal

giver. It rarely occurs to the fashionable dispensers of spiritual

knowledge to ask whether the devil's money should be used to gild the

Lord's temple; nor to question if it be a wise religion which allows

a man to rob his neighbours on weekdays, to give to the cause of

charity on Sundays.

And yet if every clergyman and priest in the land were to make and

maintain these standards for their followers, there might be an

astonishing decrease in the needs of the poor and unfortunate.

Were every church member obliged to open his month's ledgers to a

competent jury of inspectors, before he was allowed to take the holy

sacrament and avow himself a humble follower of Christ, what a

revolution might ensue! How church spires would crumble for lack of

support, and poorhouses lessen in number for lack of inmates!

But the leniency of clergymen toward the shortcomings of their

wealthy parishioners is often a touching lesson in charity to the

thoughtful observer who stands outside the fold.

For how could they obtain money to convert the heathen, unless this

sweet cloak of charity were cast over the sins of the liberal rich?

Christ is crucified by the fashionable clergymen to-day more cruelly

than he was by the Jews of old.

Senator Cheney was not a church member, and he seldom attended

service. This was a matter of great solicitude to his wife and

daughter. The Baroness felt it to be a mistake on the part of

Senator Cheney, and even Judge Lawrence, who adored his son-in-law,

regretted the young man's indifference to things spiritual. But with

all Preston Cheney's worldly ambitions and weaknesses, there was a

vein of sincerity in his nature which forbade his feigning a faith he

did not feel; and the daily lives of the three feminine members of

his family were so in disaccord with his views of religion that he

felt no incentive to follow in their footsteps. Judge Lawrence he

knew to be an honest, loyal-hearted, God and humanity loving man. "A

true Christian by nature and education," he said of his father-in-

law, "but I am not born with his tendency to religious observance,

and I see less and less in the churches to lead me into the fold. It

seems to me that these religious institutions are getting to be vast

monopolistic corporations like the railroads and oil trusts, and the

like. I see very little of the spirit of Christ in orthodox people

to-day."