—­Consider, Mr. Laicus, what would be the effect on the church of preaching that doctrine.  It is our duty to build up the church.  It is the church which is the pillar and ground of the truth.  It is the church which is Christ’s great instrumentality for the conversion of the world.  When the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, then the church will have universal dominion.  Here in Wheathedge, for example, Mr. Work is laboring to build up and strengthen the church of Christ.  And you tell his people and the people of hundreds of similar parishes all over the land, that it is no matter whether they do any work in the church or not.  Consider the effect of it.

Laicus.: 

—­It seems to me, Dr., that you entertain a low, though a very common, conception of your office.  The ministers are not mere builders of churches.  They are set to build men.  The church which will have universal dominion is not this or that particular organization, but the whole body of those who love the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.  Churches, creeds, covenants, synods, assemblies, associations, will all fade; the soul alone is immortal.  If you are really building for eternity you cannot merely build churches.

Dr. Argure.: 

—­Consider then, Mr. Laicus, the effect of your doctrine on the hearts and souls of men.  Consider how many idle and indifferent professors of religion there are, who are doing nothing in the church, and nothing for the church.  And you tell them that it is just as well they should not; that they are just as worthy of honor as if they were active in the Lords vineyard?

Laicus.: 

—­It is just as well if they are really serving Christ.  It does not make any difference whether they are doing it in the church or out of the church.  Christ himself served chiefly out of the church, and had it arrayed against him.  So did Paul; so did Luther.

Deacon Goodsole.: 

—­Do you mean that it makes no difference, Mr. Laicus, whether a man is a member of the church or not?

Laicus.: 

—­Not at all.  That is quite another matter.  I am speaking of church work, not of church membership; and I insist that church work and Christian work are not necessarily synonymous.  I insist that whatever tends to make mankind better, nobler, wiser, permanently happier, if it is work carried on in the spirit of Christ is work for Christ, whether it is done in the church or out of the church.  I insist that every layman is bound to do ten-fold more for Christ out of the church than in its appointed ways and under its supervision.  I have read, Dr., with a great deal of interest your learned and exhaustive treatise on the higher education of women, (I am afraid I told a little lie there; but had not the Dr. just told me that the truth was not to be told at all times), but I declare to you, that so far as the elevation of woman is concerned, I would rather have invented the sewing machine than have been the author of all the sermons, addresses, magazine articles, editorials and pamphlets on the woman question that have been composed since Paul wrote his second Epistle to the Christians.