"Prove it, master," they cried. "Prove it. Who has ever seen God? Who has ever seen the soul?"
And the room was stirred with their laughter.
The priest stood up to answer them, but no word could he utter. All his eloquence, all his powers of argument had gone from him; and he could do nothing but wring his hands and cry out, "There is a God! there is a God! Lord have mercy on my soul!"
And they all began to mock him! and repeat his own words that he had taught them--
"Show him to us; show us your God." And he fled from them, groaning with agony, for he saw that none believed; and how, then, could his soul be saved?
But he thought next of his wife. "She will believe," he said to himself; "women never give up God."
And he went to her; but she told him that she believed only what he taught her, and that a good wife should believe in her husband first and before and above all things in Heaven or earth.
Then despair came on him, and he rushed from the house, and began to ask every one he met if they believed. But the same answer came from one and all--"We believe only what you have taught us," for his doctrine had spread far and wide through the country.
Then he grew half mad with fear, for the hours were passing, and he flung himself down on the ground in a lonesome spot, and wept and groaned in terror, for the time was coming fast when he must die.
Just then a little child came by. "God save you kindly," said the child to him.
"I have come from a far country to learn about him," said the child. "Will your honour direct me to the best school they have in these parts?"
"The best school and the best teacher is close by," said the priest, and he named himself.
"Oh, not to that man," answered the child, "for I am told he denies God, and Heaven, and Hell, and even that man has a soul, because he cannot see it; but I would soon put him down."
The priest looked at him earnestly. "How?" he inquired.
"Why," said the child, "I would ask him if he believed he had life to show me his life."
"But he could not do that, my child," said the priest. "Life cannot be seen; we have it, but it is invisible."
"Then if we have life, though we cannot see it, we may also have a soul, though it is invisible," answered the child.