"
"You may find, madam," said Moodie, "a great many genteel people going
some where else. Gentry is no election to grace."
Mrs. Shortridge resented the insinuation by indignant silence; but
Lady Mabel, who had her own object in exasperating Moodie's sectarian
zeal, now asked him: "What is the last symptom of backsliding you have
seen in me?"
"It seems to me, my lady, that you are getting strangely intimate with
the Romish faith and rites, for one who does not believe and practice
them. It is a sinful curiosity, like that of the children of Israel,
which first made them familiar with the abominations among their
neighbors, then led them to practice the idolatries they had
witnessed."
"But may there not be something sinful, Moodie, in denouncing the
errors and corruptions of the Romanists, without having thoroughly
searched them out?"
"We know the great heads of their offense--their perversion of gospel
truth--their teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. There is
no need to trace every error through all its dark and crooked
windings. Truth is one: that God has allotted to his elect. Errors are
manifold, and sown broadcast among the reprobate.
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