Cardew; you know I cannot; I cannot say to you what I
ought."
"I want no thanks, my dear friend. What I do is a simple duty. I
am a minister of God's Word, and I know no obligation more pressing
which He has laid upon me than that of bearing witness to the
truth."
Mr. Cardew went off as usual away from what was before him.
"The duty of Christ's minister is, generally speaking, TO TAKE THE
OTHER SIDE--that is to say, to resist the verdicts passed by the
world upon men and things. Preaching mere abstractions, too, is not
by itself of much use. What we are bound to do is not only to
preserve the eternal standard, but to measure actual human beings
and human deeds by it. I sometimes think, too, it is of more
importance to say THIS IS RIGHT than to say THIS IS WRONG, to save
that which is true than to assist into perdition that which is
false. Especially ought we to defend character unjustly assailed.
A character is something alive, a soul; to rescue it is the
salvation of a soul!"
He stopped and seemed to wake up suddenly.
"Good-bye! God's blessing on you." He shook Tom's hand and was
going out of the yard.
"There is just one thing more, sir: I do not want to leave
Eastthorpe with such a character behind me--to leave in the dark,
one may say, and not defend myself. It looks as if it were an
admission I was wrong. I should, above everything, like to get to
the bottom of it, and see who is the liar or what the mistake is.
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