he had thought over what he meant to say, and was going to be very
reasonable. The young man arrived, and was ushered into the study
by his eldest brother. "Well," said the squire, "very glad to see
you, Harry; but do you mean to tell me that your mother's religion
is not good enough for a damned ass like you?"

Now far from desiring to minimise faith in God and the Unseen, I
think it is the thing of which the world is more in need than
anything else. What has made the path of faith a steep one to tread
is partly that it has got terribly encumbered with ecclesiastical
traditions; it has been mended, like the Slough of Despond, with
cartloads of texts and insecure definitions. And partly too the old
simple undisturbed faith in the absolute truth and authority of the
Bible has given way. It is admitted that the Bible contains a
considerable admixture of the legendary element; and it requires a
strong intellectual and moral grip to build one's faith upon a
collection of writings, some of which, at all events, are not now
regarded as being historically and literally true. "If I cannot
believe it all," says the simple bewildered soul, "how can I be
certain that any of it is indubitably true?" Only the patient and
desirous spirit can decide; but whatever else fades, the perfect
insight, the Divine message of the Son of Man cannot fade; the
dimmer that the historical setting becomes, the brighter shine the
parables and the sayings, so far beyond the power of His followers
to have originated, so utterly satisfying to our deepest needs.
What I desire to say with all my heart is that we pilgrims need not
be dismayed because the golden clue dips into darkness and mist; it
emerges as bright as ever upon the upward slope of the valley. If
one disregards all that is uncertain, all that cannot be held to be
securely proved in the sacred writings, there still remain the