“If Christian ministers in the bazars can preach against Muhamedanism and Hinduism; if they can write books to destroy these religions, why should they object to an investigation of their own creeds? They talk of the intolerance and bigotry of the Muhamedans, but who so intolerant as the Christians? Let one of their number leave their ranks with all honesty and good intention. He is then shunned as a leper, avoided as if he were a dangerous animal and treated with contempt, and reflections are made on his motives, until he is at length obliged in self defense, and for his own self respect, to give his reasons and make attacks in return, when but for the uncharitable treatment he received would have remained silent.” I had asked frequent questions during the conversation, but do not consider them worth repeating. This accounts for the apparent breaks in Mr. Jasper’s remarks. It was no fault of his that he did not answer my first question, as I diverted him from it by a question. I again referred to it, and he said: “Believe in God? Most emphatically I do. I came to conclude in the existence of God in this way. I see about me a world of matter. It is inert, dead, incapable of motion in itself or of moving other things. It could not therefore come into existence by itself. I observe that vegetable and animal life is above matter and has a certain power over it, yet I am conscious that this life did not create itself. Then comes man, supreme over all, with his varied powers and faculties. I know from my own experience, that though he can do much he is only a transformer. He cannot create anything, so he could not be his own creator. So on, from the lowest to the highest life I see no power of creating. I see what man can do, the transcendant harmony and adaptation of the things his mind can arrange but not create. I see the wonderful things in nature, their beauty and the universal harmony of all things, not only of the earth but of the heavenly bodies. Everything I see is according to law, nothing by chance. I see nothing on earth that can create the smallest thing, and that nothing is moved or transferred but by life, mind; and hence I infer that there must be a mind above all this to start it and continue it, and this mind I call God. I do not know what you think of my theory, but it is satisfactory to myself, and this is sufficient for me. It may not satisfy you or any other being on earth. I am not thinking for others; only for myself. I must believe and act for myself.