Mr. Jasper frequently called. His conversation always set me to thinking. This is a good sign of conversation, as well as of a book. In my experience the best books are those which lie open in my hand, while my thoughts are pursuing some ideas suggested by something just read. The only real use of books is to make a man think for himself. Reading that does not set the mind to work, not only wastes the time but weakens the faculty for thought. If a book will not set one thinking for himself, it is not worth shelf-room. The same with men. One might be with some a week or month, and all they have to give is talk, mere words, while they are enamored by their own verbosity. I also dislike a man who always agrees with me, and never goes beyond my depth. Mr. Jasper was always climbing, reaching out for something higher than himself, and exciting one to go with him. One morning I abruptly asked him, “Do you believe in God?” I cannot tell why I asked the question, as we cannot always give a reason for our doings. He exclaimed, “Why do you ask such a question? Believe in God! How can I help it? How can any thinking being do otherwise? I see, you have got the impression from something I have said, that because I do not believe everything in the Bible, the church, the creeds, as some do, I must be an atheist. It is so easy for some to use that epithet against any one who is not willing to swallow everything that people wish to force down his throat. Some one has said, I forget who, that ‘if some mortal steps on the world’s platform and announces a few salient truths which do not conform to the stereotyped systems of the religious community, he is overwhelmed with hisses and objurgations, denounced as a heretic or ostracized as an agnostic or an infidel.’ “I am profoundly a theist. I can say, with Voltaire, that if there is not a God it would be necessary to invent one. He was also very orthodox in his belief in hell, for, when a friend wrote to him, ‘I have succeeded in getting rid of the idea of hell,’ Voltaire replied, ‘I congratulate you; I am very far from that.’ “But to the question. I doubt if there is really an atheist in the world. There are infidels, as every one is an infidel in regard to something. There are different views about God, as many as there are people. You never saw two faces exactly alike. I have often thought of this, that of the fifteen hundred millions of people in the world, we can recognize every one from another. It seems incredible. If then, all these faces are different, so are the minds, and each one has his conception of God. Who will presume to say that any one kind of face is more acceptable to God than another? Or who is to tell us that all the rest must make theirs conform to a certain type, or to lay down a law that such is the will of God?