He grew calmer now.  Doing things had always suited him better than brooding over things.  His new determination illuminated the reason for reckless adventures, and lifted their purpose to a higher plane.  He thought now that he held his life at God’s will—­to be given back to God at a moment’s notice.

This thought made him calmer still, made him strong, almost made him happy.  A life for a life.  He would expiate his offense in God’s good time.  So no danger was too big for William Dale to face; his courage became a byword; gentlefolk and peasants alike admired and wondered.

Out of the consistent course of action came the consistency of the thought that was governing the action.  Assumption of the reality of God as a working hypothesis led to conviction of the existence of God.

Yet strangely and unexpectedly the attempt to formalize his faith almost shook his faith out of him again.  Although throughout the episode of his acceptance by the Baptists he seemed so stolid and matter-of-fact, he was truly suffering storms of emotion.  He fell a prey to old illusions; that unreasoning fear returned; he was thrown back into the state of terrified egoism which rendered lofty impersonal meditation beyond attainment.

That evening when for the first time he went to the Baptist Chapel, the illusion was strong upon him that every man, woman, and child in the congregation had discovered his secret.  When they all stood up to sing, it seemed that he was naked, defenseless, utterly at their mercy.  With every word of their carefully selected hymn they were telling him that they knew all about him.  When they began their third verse, they simply roared a denunciation straight at him: 

      “But thus th’ eternal counsel ran: 
      ‘Almighty love, arrest that man.’”

And the second and third hymns were just as bad, shaking him to pieces, tumbling him headlong into the terror he had felt when his crime was no more than a week old.  The rest of the service entranced and delighted him, made him think:  “These people are in touch with God, and their God is full of love and mercy.  If He would accept me, I should feel safe.”  At the end of the service he knelt, praying for this to happen.  Then he went home and doubted.

The fear was on him again in the beginning of his interview with Mr. Osborn the pastor.  He thought:  “This man has seen through me.  He knows.  Perhaps his past experiences have taught him to be quick in spotting criminals.  He may have been a prison chaplain some time or other.  Anyhow, he knows; and he’ll try to get a confession out of me, as sure as I sit here.”  But the beauty of the conception of God as unfolded by Mr. Osborn banished the fear.  He thought:  “If I had been told these things before, I should have never ceased to believe.  I feel it through and through me.  This is God; and if I am not too late, if He will still accept me, I shall be saved.  Christ, the friend, the brother of man—­same as described by Mr. Osborn two minutes ago—­can do it for me if He will.  He can take me home to Father.”  A verse of one of those hymns echoed in his ears: