“Joseph,” said the Squire, in a sorrowful tone, “I’ve always been afeard they didn’t look enough into your evidences when they took you into that church.  How can a man expect to escape on the day of wrath if he’s all the time grumbling at the cost of his salvation?  Mistake?  If you don’t know in your heart the truth of what you profess, there’s mighty little hope for you, church or no church.”

[Illustration:  JOE AND HIS VENERABLE PARTNER TALKING OVER INSURANCE MATTERS.]

“Know in my heart!” cried Joe.  “That’s a pretty kind of security.  Is that what I’ve been paying church dues for?  Better have known it in my heart in the first place, and saved the money.  What’s the use of believing all these knotty points, if they don’t make a sure thing for a man?”

“If your belief don’t make you any better or happier, Joseph,” rejoined the Squire, “you’d better look again and see if you’ve got a good hold of it; those that’s got a clear title don’t find their investment as slow in making returns, while those that find fault are generally the ones that’s made a mistake.”

Poor Joe!  He thought he had settled this whole matter; but now, if his partner was right, he was worse off than if he hadn’t begun.  He believed in justification by faith; now, wasn’t his faith strong—­first class, he might say?  To be sure of being safe, hadn’t he believed everything that all the ministers had insisted upon as essential?  And what was faith, if it wasn’t believing?  He would ask his partner; the old man had got him into this scrape—­now he must see him through.

“Squire,” said he, “isn’t faith the same thing as believing?”

“Well,” said the Squire, adjusting his glasses, and taking from the desk the little Testament upon which he administered oaths, “that depends on how you believe.  Here’s a verse on the subject:  ’Thou believest in God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble.’”

Ugh!  Joe shivered.  He wasn’t an aristocrat, but would one fancy such companionship as the Squire referred to?

“Here,” said the Squire, turning the leaves, “is another passage bearin’ on the subject.  ’O, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance.’”

Vipers!  Joe uncomfortably wondered who else the Squire was going to introduce into the brotherhood of the faith.

“Now, see what it says in another place,” continued the Squire, “Not every one that saith unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

“Yes,” said Joe, grateful for hearing of no more horrible believers, “but what is his will but believing on him?  Don’t the Bible say that they that believe shall be saved?”

“Joseph,” said the Squire, “when you believed in my store, you put in your time and money there.  When you believed in hoss-tradin’ you devoted yourself to practicing it.  When you believed life insurance was a good thing, you took out policies and paid for them, though you have complained of the Patagonian dividends.  Now, if you do believe in God, what have you done to prove it?”