Possibly there may be more truth in this than any of us dream of: _fas est ab hoste doceri_. I therefore make no professions of honesty, and appeal to no one’s feelings; let us go and look at the Bible, and at the earth’s crust, and be guided by our independent researches. Should this happen to be read by any one whose mind is out of joint with Scripture; who no longer reposes with satisfaction on the old book of his childhood and his youth; who has begun to fear,—perhaps to think that it is only a collection of “cunningly devised” fables; and who is on the verge of giving up Christianity and all “that sort of thing;” to such an one I shall speak, supposing him to be as honest in his doubts as I am in my convictions. I cannot deal with man as if he had no right to doubt; I have never yet “pooh-poohed” any one’s unbelief; but I have always striven to regard all doubts expressed in courteous phrase, as the result of investigation, even though it may be partial, as the fruit of study, although it may have been misguided, and as the painful conclusions of a thinking mind, and not cherished for the sake of “having a fling” at moral truth or a righteous life, or at the mothers and sisters whose life “remote from public haunt” has saved them from ever doubting the truth of revelation. Doubting and scorning are very opposite phases of mind: we here address the _doubter_; with the _scorner_ we have nothing to do; if _ridicule_ is his substitute for argument, by all means let him enjoy it; and if _calling names_ is his substitute for patient investigation, let him enjoy that pastime also—hard words break no bones; but for the _doubter_, for the man who has his honest difficulties, and finds large stumbling-blocks in the path of unresisting acquiescence in household faiths, for such an one I have much to say in this chapter, if he will read it,—to him I stretch forth my hand in cordial greeting, and invite him to examine evidence, and consider facts; and then, whatever may be the result, whether I shake _his doubts_ or he shake _my faith_, we shall at least have acted a manly and a straightforward part. At any rate, we ought ever to meet as friends, and to be candid and forbearing, as men liable to err through manifold besetments and biasses.