multitudes, from the peace, joy and moral security that accompany
faith in evangelical Christianity into the desert of doubt, darkness
and despair.

But not even here did I find a staying-place. For rationalism, in its
bold confidence, led me on and on until it brought me to materialism
and absurdity. In going too far, it revealed its true nature and
character, and thus led me to see its fallacy and enabled me to get
free from its bondage. From atheism it led me to fatalism, and
declared that there is no free will and consequently people are not
to blame for their sins and shortcomings. If we "shall reap as we
sow," it declared that we cannot give anything to anybody and
therefore philanthropy is a delusion.

But I taught rationalism in guile one day by which it thoroughly
exhibited the absurdity of its teaching. Its continual song was, "You
dare not believe what you cannot conceive to be true." So it declared
one day, in its bold folly, that an object cannot move in the space
in which it is, nor in the space in which it is not; therefore you
cannot conceive of an object moving; therefore you cannot move to
walk, eat or live. So the conclusion to which my rationalistic guide
finally led me was that I must sit down and die or be irrational.
Well, this was too much for me. I refused to die, and concluded that
rationalism is not a safe guide, and commenced to investigate as to
where the difficulty lay.

But before I tell you how I discovered the false tricks of
rationalism, let me say that all these things into which rationalism
led me were against my strong religious nature, and gave me continual
and excruciating pain. I never for a day ceased to pray to God for