——“What is the matter, my dear?” asked the Vicar.
——“What is the matter! What is the matter indeed! A pretty question to ask! The matter is that we are ruined; that before very long, thanks to the bishops and the rest, whose business it is to look after the interests of our Holy Church, the country will soon be full of materialists and infidels.”
——“Come, come; what is all this about, my dear?” said the reverend gentleman quietly.
——“What is it about! Ah! my dear, it is easy to see you are paid by the State, from the way in which you take things. There, read that, and see what you think of it. It’s a very pretty state of things truly! What is it coming to? Who is to be trusted? We are betrayed, swindled, lost....”
——“But, my dear, once more, who is it you are so bitter against? I cannot see what can have put you into such a state of mind.”
——“Ah! really! You don’t see that, instead of keeping that precious phrase that sums up Christianity: ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul,’ the New Version has: ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own life’?”
——“I see it very well; but read the reference: or his soul. You have not looked at the foot of the page.”
——“That hesitation only makes the matter worse. The translators had much better have said frankly what they mean.”
——“The Greek word psuche signifies soul as well as breath, life.”
——“Much I care for your Greek,” cried Mrs. Goodman, indignant. “Do your congregation know anything about Greek? What will they think of us? That for centuries past, the Church has been deceiving them and making them pay tithes for nothing. Can’t you see that this change is tantamount to saying there is no hell? Just as well say that our Saviour never spoke of the other world, that everything He said applies to the life here below, and that His precepts were only given to teach the people to be happy in this world. It is frightful to think of! We must not be surprised at anything after this. The next thing I shall expect to see, is the bishops rallying round the Unitarians and denying the divinity of Christ. That there is no such place as purgatory, I am quite ready to admit; but if there is no hell, while I am in Heaven, where will the sinners be, my poor Barty? where will the sinners be?”