“My son, I will not blame thee for these thoughts, albeit they be charged with peril in these days.  It is human nature thus to question and thus to doubt.  We may not blind our eyes, though we must ever strive to chasten our hearts, that we fall not into the condemnation of those who speak evil of dignities, and bring a railing accusation against those set over them.  I, too, have had my period of storm-tossed doubts and fears; but I have learned to fix mine eyes upon the Holy One of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps—­upon the crucified Saviour, who has suffered that death of agony and shame that He may draw all men unto Himself.  How He will do it I know not.  How He will open up again the closed channels, and make ready His Church to meet Him and receive Him, I can not even conjecture.  But His word cannot fail; and in His own appointed time, and in His own appointed way, I verily believe that He will draw unto Himself all men who have ever called upon His name, and all those unto whom His name has never been proclaimed, and who, therefore, have never rejected Him.  In that hope and that belief I try to rest; and fixing my eyes and thoughts upon Him and Him alone, I strive to forget the chaos and the strife of earth, and to look upon all men as brothers in Christ, if they will but bow the knee at that thrice holy name.”

Edred looked at him with wide-open eyes.

“Heretics call upon the name of Jesus.  Thinkest thou that heretics will be saved?  I thought they were doomed to hellfire forever!”

The boy spoke in a voice that was little more than a whisper.  He was almost afraid to hear the answer, lest it should convey a germ of the dreaded heresy, and yet how eager he was to know what Brother Emmanuel really thought.

“It is not for me to say who will and who will not be saved,” he said, slowly and thoughtfully; “and we are expressly told that there will be punishment for those who fall away from the faith.  Yet we are not told that error will be punished with everlasting death.  And there be places in Holy Scripture which tell us that ‘whoso believeth and is baptized shall be saved;’ and heretics believe that Christ died for the world.  It says, again, that those who love the Lord are born of God; and shall they perish everlastingly?  My son, the mercies of God are very great; from end to end of this book we are told that.  Knowing so much, need we ask more?  With Him rests the judgment of all mankind.  He alone can read the heart.  Let that thought be enough for us.  Whether the sin of heresy is as vile in His eyes as in those of man, He alone knows; we do not.  Let us strive for our own part to keep the unity of the faith in the bond of peace, and leave all else to Him.”

As he spoke, Brother Emmanuel gently closed the book, as though to close the discussion likewise; and Edred, looking up and round about him, drawing a long breath meantime, suddenly gave a start, which attracted the attention of his preceptor.