'You are right, reverend sir,' answered Dorn; 'that would be to do him foul wrong; but to seek the honorable love of a maiden whom I hope one day to lead to the altar as my beloved wife, appears to me to be well, and is not forbidden in the holy scriptures.'
'You wish to espouse the maiden, then?' said the parson; 'that is quite a different thing, and I take back my censure. In that case my office imposes upon me another sacred duty. The maiden is how under my spiritual care, and I must be answerable to heaven for her religious principles, which might be perverted by an unbelieving husband. I have become doubtful of you, from your own conversations, and therefore, as a called and ordained servant of the word, I ask you, are you an orthodox Lutheran christian?'
'You would find it very difficult to justify that question before the great author of your reformation,' answered Dorn, moodily. 'Know you not how peremptorily he forbade the professors of his doctrines to designate themselves by his name?'
'You wish to evade my question!' cried the parson, feeling the sting, but endeavoring to conceal the smart.
'That is not my custom,' said Dorn. 'I will never deny that I adhere to the doctrines which were first promulgated in Switzerland, and have thence spread throughout the German empire.'
'As I feared!' cried the parson. 'A Calvinist, or perhaps even a Zuinglian! and you wish to take a wife of the Augsburg faith?'
'Why not?' asked Dorn. 'That God who has disposed my heart toward the maiden, will not be angry that I choose her as my companion for life.'
'I much doubt whether you can have and keep a true heart for one who is of a different faith,' said the parson, shaking his head.
'God, who is eternal love, pardon you for the doubt, reverend sir,' said Dorn with emotion. 'It is a sad consideration, that contentions about unimportant dogmas and forms so frequently divide christians who should stand united against the common enemy. It would be dreadful if the feeble chains by which you are yet fettered, after throwing off those of popery, should bar the way between two innocent individuals, whose souls have become united by the bonds of holy love.'
'Unimportant dogmas and forms?' repeated the parson.