Do you believe in fairies?

by Lenora de Lima Andrews

A ROMANTIC ADVENTURE INTO RELIGION

Once upon a time there

Was a little

Girl.

And she never read the

Bible, and when her fond parents

Decided that she ought to be

Religiously educated, she

Rebelled, and on Sundays developed

Colds—and so forth.

But—

When anyone mentioned

Saul or

Rachel or

Anything, she felt

Uncomfortable

And blushed

And giggled

And tried to

Change the subject, which

She couldn’t always do.

And everyone accused her of not

“Having religion”

Until she fully

Believed it.

Bye and bye

When she grew older she

Began to wonder

What this religion

That everybody thought so much about—

That preachers preached about—

That revivalists ranted about—

Is.

And when she asked

People

Some carefully stroked their beards

And thoughtfully cleaned their spectacles

And said:—“It is

The divine life in the human soul” whatever

That is.

And some

Sat up straight

And promptly answered

“The natural gratitude to God for creating us which makes us want to obey his commands, in return,” which

Was clearer, but sounded too much like a

Bargain.

And she asked some who had been

Brought up on

Catechisms and

Things.

And they

Looked shocked at the

Question.

Perhaps because they

Didn’t know.

And there were many

More answers

But

The girl thought

That, as there

Were so many and

So many people had

Bothered about it,

It must be pretty

Important and

Useful.

And so she looked

Up in card indices and

Read many

Deep books

And had many

Deep discussions

And things.

Finally she decided

That

Religion is a very

Personal thing,

And so

There couldn’t be a

Single definition for

Everyone.

But as for herself, she

Considered it

One’s idea of perfection,

The attempt to live up to this idea as an ideal,

And

One’s attitude toward the world in trying to do this.

And as for the ways of “getting religion”

She could not believe

That this should be

Thrust upon a poor defenseless

Babe, or that a mean advantage should be

Taken of his

Youth

By his parents, in biasing his

Later saner judgment by

Prejudicing him in favor of certain

Opinions that They

Happened to have.

She did not mean

That one should not read the

Bible, or obey general morals or

Know who Rachel was or

Be as uneducated, as

She. She meant that one should be

Left to oneself,

When it comes to thinking out

What his Motive in life,

And

Conception of perfection, and

Explanation of the big whys of

Life, and

Things

Like that

Are.

For one must get an

Understanding of such

Things

(If one is to have a real understanding of them)

Either through

Much theory,

Or better,

By the experience which only

Living gives—

If you get what I mean.

But,

Thought the girl,

What is the use of

Worrying

About things like that

Anyhow?

And then she

Realized how

People always turn toward

Religion

When they are in

Trouble; as the

Religious revival in

Europe now

Shows.

And she realized the

Comfort that they

Get

From it.

And after all

It is only natural that when

Material things

And means toward the real end

Go wrong,

And one feels blue,

That one should try to

Look ahead

And beyond

At the real goal,

And get

Cheered up,

By the confirmation that there is a goal.

And that is one use of

Religion.

And besides

People

Are apt to be too

Materialistic, nowadays.

And the very presence of ideals,

Or recognition of their presence,

Will lead one

Beyond

Such narrowness

And

Such binding materialism, and so

Will lead to

Higher ideals—

Hence

Higher strivings—

Hence

A better world—

Which is

An asset in itself,

If you get what I

Mean.

And this is the

Real

Use of religion.

And with this off her mind she felt better.