“But the Church never changes,” said Margaret. “Then He could not be true,” said Belasez. “Oh, but Father Nicholas says the Church develops! She always teaches the truth, but she unfolds it more and more as time goes on.”
“The truth is one, my damsel. It maybe more. But it can never be different and contrary.”
“But we change,” urged Margaret, taking the last weapon out of her quiver. “We may need one thing to-day, and another to-morrow.”
“We may. And if the original command had been even, ‘Ye shall make no image but one,’ I should think it might then, as need were, have been altered to, ‘Ye may now make a thousand images.’ But being, ‘Ye shall make none’ it cannot be altered. That would be to alter His character who is in all His universe the only unchangeable One.”
Margaret sat and watched the progress of the embroidery, but she said no more.
Chapter Four.
The Time of Jacob’s Trouble.
“I know that the thorny path I tread
Is ruled with a golden line;
And I know that the darker life’s tangled thread,
The brighter the rich design.
“For I see, though veiled from my mortal sight,
God’s plan is all complete;
Though the darkness at present be not light,
And the bitter be not sweet.”