"If you heard Bartram say it, he _did_ say it, of course.

But there's something wrong somewhere.

The minister's rather lost his head over Sam Kimper, just because the wretch isn't back in his old ways again, and he's got a new notion in his head about how the gospel ought to be preached.

New notions have been plenty enough ever since true religion started; there's always some man or men thinking out things for themselves and forgetting everything else on account of them.

There were meddlers of that kind back to the days of the apostles, and goodness knows the history of the church is full of them.