He was struck by the aptness of the words.
“I feel I have to come right out into the bare truth. What exactly then do I become? Do I lose my priestly function because I discover how great God is? But what am I to do?”
He opened a new layer of his thoughts to her.
“There is a saying,” he remarked, “once a priest, always a priest. I cannot imagine myself as other than what I am.”
“But o'thodox no maw,” she said.
“Orthodox—self-satisfied, no longer. A priest who seeks, an exploring priest.”
“In a Chu'ch of P'og'ess and B'othe'hood,” she carried him on.
“At any rate, in a progressive and learning church.”
She flashed and glowed assent.
“I have been haunted,” he said, “by those words spoken at Athens. 'Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.' That comes to me with an effect of—guidance is an old-fashioned word—shall I say suggestion? To stand by the altar bearing strange names and ancient symbols, speaking plainly to all mankind of the one true God—!”