And earlier or
later there comes an hour when Christ is arraigned before the judgment
bar in each individual soul. Once again the Church and the world combine
to crush Him who stands silent in their midst, to condemn Him who has
already condemned them. Together they raise their fierce cry, 'Crucify
Him! Crucify Him!'"
Mr. Gresley tore the leaf out of the manuscript and threw it in the
fire.
But worse remained behind. To add to its other sins, the book, now
drawing to its close, took a turn which had been led up to inevitably
step by step from the first chapter, but which, in its reader's eyes,
who perceived none of the steps, was a deliberate gratuitous
intermeddling with vice. Mr. Gresley could not help reading, but, as he
laid down the manuscript for a moment to rest his eyes, he felt that he
had reached the limit of Hester's powers, and that he could only
attribute the last volume to the Evil One himself.
He had hardly paid this high tribute to his sister's talent when the
door opened, and Mrs. Gresley came in in a wrapper that had once been
white.
"Dear James," she said, "is anything wrong? It is past one o'clock. Are
you never coming to bed?"
"Minna," said her pastor and master, "I have been reading the worst book
I have come across yet, and it was written by my own sister under my own
roof.
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