A gentle breeze fanned the crowd of anxious listeners. The windows of the dining-halls were filled with human forms eagerly leaning forward.
“Be brave, my Royal Guide, _we_ shall never desert you, although your Church gives you up,” and Mrs Pottinger laid her firm white hand on the arm of His Royal Highness.
“Louder, my lord,” whispered Jack Roller to the Bishop.
The old man raised himself on his toes, and, lifting his eyes, to heaven, uttered these words: “_The union of all churches._”
A profound silence followed; and as the true purport of these words became evident to the crowd, a loud murmur of approval arose, which convinced the preacher he had struck the keynote of the public feeling. The ice was broken, and feeling himself at one with his congregation, the ex-dignitary proceeded unhesitatingly with his discourse, in language which was always sincere, and at times even waxed eloquent. He revealed to his public his inner thoughts and struggles. Strange to say, at every phrase he destroyed what he had at one time worshipped, and extolled that which he had formerly condemned.
“Three months ago,” went on the prelate, “humanity had very erroneous ideas of politics, economics, morals, and, I fear, also of religion; but now that man has not a rag upon his back, now that monk’s hood, Bishop’s apron, Hebrew canonicals are no more, conflicting dogmas cannot avail to separate man from man. The principle of love forms the basis of all divine teachings, and moral relationships between all creatures are the aim of all those who reverence an ideal of some sort. There is no doubt, my friends, that with the vanishing of clothes has disappeared also religious casuistry. Religion, and by that I mean love and charity, is as easy to practise in our large cities as it was in the small community of Galilee. The first thing which we must well understand is that religion must never be gloomy, nor ascetic, but, on the contrary, must shed a radiance over mankind; for practical religion consists in the perfect development of all our faculties, and in the enjoyment of that which is beautiful. Happiness is the true aim of religion, and it cannot be obtained by means of that religious depression which annihilates human efforts towards social reforms. Only by working hand in hand with science, and by strictly following her researches and approving of her discoveries, can that _summum bonum_ be achieved.”