“And this,” continued Mr. Engel, “brings me to another aspect of authority.  I wonder if it has struck you?  In mediaeval times, when a bishop spoke ex cathedra, his authority, so far as it carried weight, came from two sources.  First, the supposed divine charter of the Church to save and damn.  That authority is being rapidly swept away.  Second, he spoke with all the weight of the then accepted science and philosophy.  But as soon as the new science began to lay hold on people’s minds, as —­for instance—­when Galileo discovered that the earth moved instead of the sun (and the pope made him take it back), that second authority began to crumble too.  In the nineteenth century science had grown so strong that the situation looked hopeless.  Religion had apparently irrevocably lost that warrant also, and thinking men not spiritually inclined, since they had to make a choice between science and religion, took science as being the more honest, the more certain.

“And now what has happened?  The new philosophies have restored your second Authority, and your first, as you properly say, is replaced by the conception of Personality.  Personality is nothing but the rehabilitation of the prophet, the seer.  Get him, as Hatch says, back into your Church.  The priests with their sacrifices and automatic rites, the logicians, have crowded him out.  Why do we read the Old Testament at all?  Not for the laws of the Levites, not for the battles and hangings, but for the inspiration of the prophets.  The authority of the prophet comes through personality, the source of which is in what Myers calls the infinite spiritual world—­in God.  It was Christ’s own authority.

“And as for your other authority, your ordinary man, when he reads modern philosophy, says to himself, this does not conflict with science?  But he gets no hint, when he goes to most churches, that there is, between the two, no real quarrel, and he turns away in despair.  He may accept the pragmatism of James, the idealism of Royce, or even what is called neo realism.  In any case, he gains the conviction that a force for good is at worn in the world, and he has the incentive to become part of it.....  But I have given you a sermon!”

“For which I can never be sufficiently, grateful,” said Hodder, with an earnestness not to be mistaken.

The little man’s eyes rested admiringly, and not without emotion, on the salient features of the tall clergyman.  And when he spoke again, it was in acknowledgment of the fact that he had read Hodder’s purpose.

“You will have opposition, my friend.  They will fight you—­some persons we know.  They do not wish—­what you and I desire.  But you will not surrender—­I knew it.”  Mr. Engel broke off abruptly, and rang a bell on his desk.  “I will make out for you a list.  I hope you may come in again, often.  We shall have other talks,—­yes?  I am always here.”

Then it came to pass that Hodder carried back with him another armful of books.  Those he had brought back were the Levellers of the False.  These were the Builders of the True.