"Why, Mr. Eberstein, if it is natural, we cannot help it."
"How then does trying to be No. 1 agree with the love that 'seeketh not her own'?"
Dolly was listening earnestly, Mr. Eberstein saw. Mrs. Thayer hesitated, in some inward disgust.
"Do you take that literally?" she said then. "How can you take it literally? You cannot."
"But Christ pleased not Himself."
"Well, but He was not like us."
"We are bidden to be like him, though."
"Oh, as far as we can. But you cannot press those words literally, Mr. Eberstein."
"As far as we can? I must press them, for the Bible does. I ask no more, and the Lord demands no more, than that we be like our Master as far as we can. And He 'pleased not himself,' and 'received not honour from men.'"
"If you were to preach such doctrine in schools, I am afraid you would have very bad recitations."