"In these dark days our Faith is seen under an aspect that by no means
fairly represents its true nature, noble lady; trust my words! Have you
not yourself seen, even in your short life, that what is highest and
greatest can in its excess, be all that is most hideous? A noble pride,
if not kept within bounds, becomes overweening ambition; the lovely grace
of humility degenerates into an indolent sacrifice of opinion and will;
high-hearted enterprise into a mad chase after fortune, in which we ride
down everything that comes in the way of success. What is nobler than a
mother's love, but when she fights for her child she becomes a raving
Megaera. In the same way the Faith--the consoler of hearts--turns to a
raging wild-beast when it stoops to become religious partisanship. If
you would really understand Christianity you must look neither down to
the deluded masses, and those ambitious worldlings who only use it as a
means to an end by inflaming their baser passions, nor up to the throne,
where power translates the impulse of a disastrous moment into sinister
deeds. If you want to know what true and pure Christianity is, look into
our homes, look at the family life of our fellow believers. I know them
well, for my humble functions lead me into daily and hourly intercourse
with them. Look to them if you purpose to give your hand to a Christian
and make your home with him. There, my child, you will see all the
blessings of the Saviour's teaching, love and soberness, pitifulness to
the poor and a real heart-felt eagerness to forgive injuries. I have
seen a Christian bestow his last crust on his hapless foe, on the enemy
of his house, on the Heathen or the Jew, because they, too, are men,
because our neighbor's woes should be as our own--I have seen them taken
in and cherished as though they were fellow-Christians.--There you will
find a striving after all that is good, a never-fading hope in better
days to come, even under the worst afflictions; and when death requires
the sacrifice of all that is dearest, or swoops down on life itself, a
firm assurance of the forgiveness of sins through Christ. Believe me,