“Ah!” said Gerhardt softly, “‘those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell!’ How ready men are to account them sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem! Yet it may be that they who thus judge are the worse sinners of the two, in God’s eyes, however high they stand in the world’s sight.”
“Well, I don’t set up to be better than other folks,” said Stephen lightly. He had brought the news. “I reckon I shall pass muster, if I’m as good.”
“That would not satisfy me,” said Gerhardt. “I should want to be as good as I could be. I could not pass beyond that. But even then—”
“That’s too much trouble for me,” laughed Stephen. “When you’ve done your work, hand me over the goodness you don’t want.”
“I shall not have any, for it won’t be enough.”
“That’s a poor lookout!”
“It would be, if I had to rely on my own goodness.”
Stephen stared. “Why, whose goodness are you going to rely on?”
Gerhardt lifted his cap. “‘There is none good but One,—that is, God.’”
“I reckon that’s aiming a bit too high,” said Stephen, with a shake of his head. “Can’t tell how you’re going to get hold of that.”