Page:Path of Vision; pocket essays of East and West.djvu/159

 world, and with God. Even with the Minister, who hurls from his pulpit no Nazarine-parables of Dives and Lazarus or the Needle's Eye and the Camel. No; the Most Right Reverend respects the attitude and peace of mind of his congregation, wherefore his tenure sacerdotal would seem less precarious than the pew-privelegesprivileges [sic] of its richest member. But that colossal sounding board is hanging above him as by a spider's thread, and some day, when, in the very nick of his sermon, he is applying the divine salve, it might give the congregation a different interpretation of his Mortal Text.

Allah forgive me for what I have here set down. I came to this church to pray, not to cavil. And for those, distant and near, in present or past incarnation, who might have caused this unhappy turn of mind, I also invoke Allah's forgiveness and mercy.

The service is over. But the essential part of it we behold in the narrow street in front of the church where a squad of