'infatuation,' can never be found with the believers of infallibility.'" "I will answer you honestly," replied Katherine, "not because you call upon me to do so, but because I never have any other mode of answering any body; and I will say, that, if you can once bring your mind to believe in the Infallibility of a Church, you are right to obey her, or, in other words, you begin with a folly, and are consistent in your folly!" 66 Nay," replied Geraldine, "call me mad at once; for the character of madness is to reason correctly on false premises; but remember, Katherine, that I have as much cause to wonder at you, as you have to hold up your hands and eyes at me; for you had not an answer to give my uncle at the close of his arguments in favour of a visible and divinely appointed Church, possessing authority to decide on points of faith; and yet you seem to be just as contented to disbelieve this, as before he advanced anything on the subject, which is to me incomprehensible." 66 My dear Geraldine;" replied Miss Graham, "I was brought up, thank heaven, with the Bible for my sole guide; and I want no Church to explain truths, which those who run may read." 66 They run and they read, Katherine, but into how many paths do they wander, whose sole guide is the mere letter of Scripture, which indeed killeth, while the spirit alone giveth life. To use your own word, it is 'infatuation' to persist in thinking, that merely reading the Sacred Scriptures will impart to you the whole and wonderful scheme of God's dealings with His creatures." "Then, pray," said Katherine, "why are the Bereans so much commended for 'searching' in the Scriptures whether those things were so,' which the Apostle had told them; and why is Timo thy congratulated that, from a child, he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation?" " "With respect to Timothy, I should say," replied Geraldine, "that he had possessed that great advantage under due subordination to his Jewish teachers, who were the divinely appointed interpreters of the Law and the Prophets; for do not suppose that I think less than you do of the high privilege of Scriptural knowledge, not for the purpose of waging war with opposition of text, but to 'ponder these things in my heart,' as did the humble holy Mary." "Well! but now for the Bereans, Geraldine; how can you get over that commendation of their proving from Scripture those things, which even an inspired Apostle assured them were so?" 6 6 "I cannot explain that text," said Geraldine, with her usual candour. "I think it all on your side of the argument; I can only give you its opponent passage, in the inquiry of Philip to the Ethiopian, when reading the Scriptures, Understandest thou what thou readest?* and the answer, How can I, unless some man show me!' But, Katherine, are you really so deceived, as to imagine that you have from a child taken your faith simply from the Bible, unbiassed by human opinion? Did you never learn your catechism, never listen to the pious conversation of your family, never hear a sermon? What boy or girl ever forms a creed but from some bias given by others? If ever I wrote an essay it should be on Self-deception, as connected with religious liberty." "As a child," replied Katherine, "I own that my impressions must have been derived from those of others. They could not be original, and how *Acts, chap. viii. v. 30. far they may have prevented the free admission of other sentiments in after-life I cannot perhaps tell; but, of course, I consider my own mind to be just and candid, and I have this assurance of thinking rightly, that, of late years, I have sat under a gospel ministry." "Ah!" cried Geraldine, "are you not yet aware, that what is termed preaching the gospel, means preaching the Epistles? Do you not observe, that if Christ gives a simple command, or a simple promise, a deep explanation, to prove that He means just the reverse of what He said, is to be given from St. Paul? That the Epistles even are only valuable, inasmuch as they contain the eighth and part of the seventh chapter to the Romans, to which every other epistle, and all the four gospels, are made to bend? that, while these modern expounders talk of liberty,' they fasten you down with innumerable petty ligatures, like Gulliver among the Lilliputians, so that it is in vain you would comfort yourself that the Brobdignag chain of infallibility is far distant, while you can stir neither hand nor foot under the glorious controul of fifty tyrants instead of one !" 66 6 Then," said Katherine laughing, "you intend to become a Catholic on the same plea which last year made you advise me to marry?" 66 Exactly so," replied Geraldine, in the same tone of mirth; "You had three aunts, a grandmother, and cousins innumerable, all advising and directing, and blaming you by turns; and when you spoke one day, in self-delusion, on the liberty of your single state, I merely advised you to compromise for one tyrant instead of many 199 CHAPTER XIX. A being breathing thoughtful breath, WORDSWORTH. Ar this part of the conversation, Mr. Everard joined the two friends, and, much pleased to find them both laughing, inquired the subject, which when told, "Ah!" said he, " apropos of marriage, I have not forgotten, Geraldine, my promise to introduce to you the one good clergyman's wife of my acquaintance-the Protestant Sister of Charity, the Reverend Mother' of her little parish. When shall we drive across the heath to see her?" "Oh! I should indeed enjoy it," said Geraldine eagerly, "I should like a holiday from all thought and care-when shall we go?" 66 Why, any day you like, unless, which would be perhaps better, I write first to my friend, the good vicar, and tell him that you pay him the compliment of letting him fix the day, his time being more occupied than ours." Accordingly it was thus arranged, and, on an early day in the following week, the two ladies, with Mr. Everard, in the open barouche, traversed rapidly and gaily the twelve miles of cross country road, and, at two o'clock, arrived by appointment at the Vicarage gate of Charleton. Geraldine had been given a sketch of the inmates in greater detail by Mr. Everard, as they had drawn near the spot, and had listened with great interest to his account of the early attachment of that congenial pairtheir struggles to conquer an affection which poverty seemed to forbid the vicar's success College-the subsequent patronage of a noble and grateful pupil-the gift of this living of Charleton at and the renewal of vows which principle had obliged them to annul. Mr. Everard's intimacy with the inmates and guest's of the Vicarage made the introduction easy, and no formality was permitted to waste the precious moments of a day, from which all, and especially Geraldine, had promised themselves so much pleasure: and while with affectionate respect she conversed at once freely with the mild yet cheerful being of whom she had heard so much, the Vicar's wife, on her part, had no unworthy misgivings that the elegant and accomplished heiress, of whom fame spoke so loudly, would despise her unfashionable dress, and her one rosy maid. Calm in the perfect dignity of simplicity, Mrs. Forester gratified Geraldine's wish to show and explain all her plans for the good of the flock over which her husband presided, and she led the way, first to her little dispensary, where Geraldine perceived, on a slate, a list of sick persons, with memoranda of their respective wants, while shelves and drawers filled one side of the room. After some conversation respecting the best method of relieving the sick poor, the visitors turned to the other side of the room, where was ranged the Village Library; and, after observing for some time in silence the various titles of the works, Miss Graham exclaimed, "What a wellthumbed Robinson Crusoe !' and these other soiled books too, what are they?—more novels ?" |