Toyner's choice of words, like his appearance, betrayed a strong, yet
finely chiselled personality.

"We are truly accustomed now to the idea that whatever has life cannot
possibly remain unchanged, but must always develop by leaving some part
behind and producing some part that is new. It is God's will that the
religious thought of the world, which is made up of the thought of
individuals, shall proceed in this way, whether we will or not, but it
must always help progress when we can make our wills at one with God's
in this matter; we go faster and safer so. Now to say that to submit
willingly to God's law of growth is to produce chaos must certainly be a
fallacy. It must then be a fallacy to argue that to keep a mind open to
all influences is antagonistic to the truest religious life; we
cannot--whether we wish or not, we _cannot_--let go any truth that has
been assimilated into our lives; and what truth we have not assimilated
it is no advantage to hold without agitation. We know better where we
are when we are forced to sift it. It is the very great apparent
advantage of recognised order that deceives us! When we lose that
_apparent_ advantage, when we lose, too, the familiar names and
symbols, and think, like children, that we have lost the reality they
have expressed to us, a very low state of things _appears_ to result.
The strain and stress of life become much greater. Ah! but, my friend,
it is that strain and stress that shape us into the image of God."

"You hinted, I think, that to your mind there was a more real obstacle,
one peculiar to our age."

Ever since I first met him I have been puzzled to know how it was that I
often knew so nearly what Toyner meant when he only partially expressed