'Yes, Betty, I thought you would say that. But you know I am not a
little child. I am a man, a responsible, thinking being, endowed by God
with a reasoning faculty which is calculated to guide me, and which,
Betty, I am expected to exercise. I cannot accept anything temporal
which is diametrically opposed or contrary to my judgment, nor would I
in the discharge of my professional duties follow a course or accept a
condition which my intellect and discernment told me was wrong. Why,
then, should I, in this the greatest of all questions, be expected to
lay reason aside and acquiesce in blind belief? No, Betty, I cannot do
that. If I did I shouldn't be true to myself.'
'But, doctor, wi' due respect, let me tell ye that cleverer men than you
have thocht these things oot for themselves an' have been satisfied wi'
the Word as it is delivered. Think o' the Reformers an' a' oor
professors, men who have studied theology a' their days, an''----
'And after all their study, what do they know, what have they gleaned
from all their books? I cannot be guided even by professors. They know
as much or as little of God's workings as the man who sweeps our village
street. Now, Betty, further than this I cannot and will not go with you.
As I have said, it is a big, debatable subject, and we might talk till
doomsday and not agree even then. Besides, it is a very dangerous thing
to tamper with any one's belief, especially if that belief affords a
solace in trials and constitutes an anchor in the storm. You have got
something within you which calms your fears, and gives you a peace which
nothing else can. Stick to it, Betty, and guard it against assault. And
I--well, Betty, I also have something within me which gives me peace,
such peace as would remain with me even if to-night I was called upon to
turn my face to the wall. Ah, Betty, each and every one has a faith. The
world has never been without one, and it will have one to the end. But
my conviction is we haven't often enough taken stock of our faith, and
the consequence is it has become detached from and out of sympathy with
our workaday lives. What a different world it would be if we were living
our religion instead of professing it! Some say this is impossible.
Well, it ought to be made possible, and the best way of going about it
would be to strip religion of all that binds it to impossible,
out-of-date dogmas, clear it of all that confounds and mystifies, and
nail as a motto to its mast-head these glorious words of the great
Master, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Betty, the time is
at hand when the Church will be forced to consider this text--ay, and to
act upon it; and when that day dawns it will herald the Millennium.'
A strange hush had fallen upon the room while the doctor was speaking,
and when he ceased it lingered with us like a benediction. Then Betty
walked quietly over to the window. 'Doctor,' she said, after a pause,
'd'ye think, at the last, everybody will be--eh--a' richt?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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