" He would explain all this to the
Archbishop of Canterbury by and by, but as he could not get hold of him
just now, it occurred to him that he might experimentalise advantageously
upon the viler soul of the prison chaplain. It was only those who took
the first and most obvious step in their power who ever did great things
in the end, so one day, when Mr Hughes--for this was the chaplain's
name--was talking with him, Ernest introduced the question of Christian
evidences, and tried to raise a discussion upon them. Mr Hughes had been
very kind to him, but he was more than twice my hero's age, and had long
taken the measure of such objections as Ernest tried to put before him. I
do not suppose he believed in the actual objective truth of the stories
about Christ's Resurrection and Ascension any more than Ernest did, but
he knew that this was a small matter, and that the real issue lay much
deeper than this.
Mr Hughes was a man who had been in authority for many years, and he
brushed Ernest on one side as if he had been a fly. He did it so well
that my hero never ventured to tackle him again, and confined his
conversation with him for the future to such matters as what he had
better do when he got out of prison; and here Mr Hughes was ever ready to
listen to him with sympathy and kindness.
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