than it was in the time of Nero.  How has this happened?  Whose the fault?  Walden, there is only one reply—­it is the Church itself that has failed!  The message of salvation,—­the gospel of love,—­these are as God-born and true as ever they were,—­but the preachers and teachers of the Divine Creed are to blame,—­the men who quarrel among themselves over forms and ceremonies instead of concentrating their energies on ministering to others,—­and I confess I find myself often at a loss to dispose Church affairs in such wise as to secure at one and the same time, peace and satisfaction amongst the clergy under me, with proper devotion to the mental and physical needs of the thousands who have a right, yes a right to expect spiritual comfort and material succour from those who profess, by their vows of ordination, to be faithful and disinterested servants of Christ.

“I daresay you remember how we used to talk religious matters over when we were young and enthusiastic men, studying for the Church.  You will easily recall the indignation and fervour with which we repudiated all heresies new and old, and turned our backs with mingled pity and scorn on every writer of agnostic theories, estimating such heterodox influences as weighing but lightly in the balance of belief, and making little or no effect on the minds of the majority.  We did not then grasp in its full measure the meaning of what is to-day called the ‘rush’ of life.  That blind, brutal stampede of humanity over every corner and quarter of the earth,—­a stampede which it is impossible to check or to divert, and which arises out of a nameless sense of panic, and foreboding of disaster!  Like hordes of wild cattle on the prairies, who scent invisible fire, and begin to gallop furiously headlong anywhere and everywhere, before the first red gleam of the devouring element breaks from the undergrowth of dry grass and stubble,—­so do the nations and peoples appear to me to-day.  Reckless, maddened, fear-stricken and reasonless, they rush hither and thither in search of refuge from themselves and from each other, yet are all the while driven along unconsciously in heterogeneous masses, as though swept by the resistless breath of some mysterious whirlwind, impelling them on to their own disaster.  I feel the end approaching, Walden!—­ sometimes I almost see it!  And with the near touch of a shuddering future catastrophe on me, I am often disposed to agree with sad King Solomon that after all ’there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat, drink and be merry all the days of his life.’  For I grow tired of my own puny efforts to lift the burden of human sorrow which is laid upon me, aloft on the fainting wings of prayer, to a God who seems wholly irresponsive,—­mind, Walden, I say seems—­so do not start away from my words and judge me as beginning to weaken in the faith that formerly inspired me.  I confess to an intense fatigue and hopelessness,—­the constant unrelieved consciousness of human wretchedness