"But is it
necessary," he urged, "to confound Christ with His ministers, the law
with its exponents? May not men preserve their hope of heaven and yet
lead more endurable lives on earth?"
"Ah, my child, beware, for this is the heresy of private judgment, which
has already drawn down thousands into the pit. It is one of the most
insidious errors in which the spirit of evil has ever masqueraded; for
it is based on the fallacy that we, blind creatures of a day, and
ourselves in the meshes of sin, can penetrate the counsels of the
Eternal, and test the balances of the heavenly Justice. I tremble to
think into what an abyss your noblest impulses may fling you, if you
abandon yourself to such illusions; and more especially if it pleases
God to place in your hands a small measure of that authority of which He
is the supreme repository.--When I took leave of you here nine years
since," Don Gervaso continued in a gentler tone, "we prayed together in
the chapel; and I ask you, before setting out on your new life, to
return there with me and lay your doubts and difficulties before Him who
alone is able to still the stormy waves of the soul."
Odo, touched by the appeal, accompanied him to the chapel, and knelt on
the steps whence his young spirit had once soared upward on the heavenly
pleadings of the Mass. The chapel was as carefully tended as ever; and
amid the comely appointments of the altar shone forth that Presence
which speaks to men of an act of love perpetually renewed.
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