For Love or Gold? The Story of a Great Department Store — page 76: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4 a ~~ : : ‘ we OK \ . Phe tus ' in 72 Mr. Forbes Talks on Religion, } “Yet God in His mercy has taken him from you. He who seeth the end from the beginning knew what was best, dear brother, for your soul’s salvation.” “But of what use is my life now?” questioned Mr. - Forbes sharply. “I am a broken reed with no ambition tolean upon. A man whose heart has been plucked by its roots from my body. Is there anything in our religion which can solace me, do you think? Is there a recom- pense for the sufferings of a heartbroken father ?” “There is balm for every wound, Brother Forbes, if we seek it... Others have suffered your loss and been able to ~ find it.” Duncan Forbes sat back in his chair and stared straight lei him. The words had brought to his mind unpleas- ant visions. In an instant he was back in his store again, where scores of pale-faced, hollow-eyed youths and maidens were moving about. They all had mothers and fathers or some one who loved them, yet, unlike his Jack, they were weighed down by poverty, the millstone of disease was about their necks, and he, Duncan Forbes, was relentlessly _ grinding the very spirit out of their frail bodies. He shuddered involuntarily:and that brought him back to his senses. “Religion! what is it?” he asked unpleasantly. “Has it any practical value in the lives of mortals? I have been a church member for forty years, paying my dues. in ac- cordance with the terms of that institution and shirking none of its responsibilities. Now, at the hour of sorrow, I find myself facing my grief alone; there is no power in the church that can help me to bear it. What is religion, I say? Is it a mere mummery of speech? I have been religious all my life; now I find nothing in it!” ‘The fault is in you,” said his caller, gravely. Both men had risen and stood facing each other. “You have been too occupied with other things, brother —too busy, you might say, with worldly matters to search | for the spirit that pervades what you call ‘mummery.’ Surely in your love for Jack you appreciate something of comicbooks.com