Free Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

boys were looked upon with hostility; the
bigger boys, like the lords temporal of the Middle Ages, used the
strength of their arms to persuade those weaker than themselves to
virtuous courses.
      Philip, his restless mind avid for new things,
became very devout. He heard soon that it was possible to join a
Bible League, and wrote to London for particulars. These consisted
in a form to be filled up with the applicant's name, age, and
school; a solemn declaration to be signed that he would read a set
portion of Holy Scripture every night for a year; and a request for
half a crown; this, it was explained, was demanded partly to prove
the earnestness of the applicant's desire to become a member of the
League, and partly to cover clerical expenses. Philip duly sent the
papers and the money, and in return received a calendar worth about
a penny, on which was set down the appointed passage to be read
each day, and a sheet of paper on one side of which was a picture
of the Good Shepherd and a lamb, and on the other, decoratively
framed in red lines, a short prayer which had to be said before
beginning to read.
      Every evening he undressed as quickly as possible in
order to have time for his task before the gas was put out. He read
industriously, as he read always, without criticism, stories of
cruelty, deceit, ingratitude, dishonesty, and low cunning. Actions
which would have excited his horror in the life about him, in the
reading passed through his mind without comment, because they were
committed under the direct inspiration of God. The method of the
League was to alternate a book of the Old Testament with a book of
the New, and one night Philip came across these words of Jesus
Christ:
      If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only
do this which is done to the fig-tree, but also if ye shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea;
it shall be done.
      And all this, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing, ye shall receive.
      They made no particular impression on him, but it
happened that two or three days later, being Sunday, the Canon in
residence chose them for the text of his sermon. Even if Philip had
wanted to hear this it would have been impossible, for the boys of
King's School sit in the choir, and the pulpit stands at the corner
of the transept so that the preacher's back is almost turned to
them. The distance also is so great that it needs a man with a fine
voice and a knowledge of elocution to make himself heard in the
choir; and according to long usage the Canons of Tercanbury are
chosen for their learning rather than for any qualities which might
be of use in a cathedral church. But the words of the text, perhaps
because he had read them so short a while before, came clearly
enough to Philip's ears, and they seemed on a sudden to have a
personal application. He thought about them through most of the
sermon, and that night, on getting into bed, he turned over the
pages of the Gospel and found once more the passage. Though he
believed implicitly everything he saw in print, he had learned
already that in the Bible things that said one thing quite clearly
often mysteriously meant another. There was no one he liked to ask
at school, so he kept the question he had in mind till the
Christmas holidays, and then one day he made an opportunity. It was
after supper and prayers were just finished. Mrs. Carey was
counting the eggs that Mary Ann had brought in as usual and writing
on each one the date. Philip stood at the table and pretended to
turn listlessly the pages of the Bible.
      "I say, Uncle William, this passage here, does it
really mean that?"
      He put his finger against it as though he had come
across it accidentally.
      Mr. Carey looked up over his spectacles. He was
holding The Blackstable Times in front of the fire. It had come in
that evening damp from the press, and the Vicar always aired it for
ten minutes before he began to read.
      "What passage is