“Just so!” interrupted Haynerd. “If Adam was a Baptist, I want to know and comply with the fact.”
A general laugh followed. Then Father Waite held up a hand and again became serious.
“Can we treat lightly even the Adam story, when we consider how much misery and rancor its literal acceptance has caused among mankind? No. Out of deepest sympathy for a world in search of truth, let us pity their stumblings, and take heed that we fall not ourselves.”
He paused. A hush lay upon the room. Carmen’s hand stole toward the Beaubien’s and clasped it tightly.
“In these days, as of old, it is still said, ‘There is no God!’ And yet, though the ignorant and wilful admit it not, mankind’s very existence is a function of their concept of a Creator, a sole cause of all that is. No question, economic, social, political, or other, is so vitally related to humanity as this: ‘Is there a God?’ And the corollary: ‘What is His relation to me?’ For there can be nothing so important as a knowledge 18 of truth. Can the existence of a God be demonstrated? Can He be shown to be beneficent, in view of the world’s testimony? What is our source of truth? If the Bible, then can its authenticity be established? The greatest of our so-called civilizations are known as Christian. But who can say by them what Christianity really is?”
“I am quite prepared to say what it is not!” again interrupted Haynerd.
“Doubtless,” resumed Father Waite. “And so are we all. But at present we are seeking constructive criticism, not solely destructive. There has been quite enough of that sort in the world. But, to go a step further, can we say positively that the truth is to be found even in Christianity?”
“Please explain your question,” said Miss Wall, with a puzzled look.
“The first essential is always facts,” he continued. “The deduction of right conclusions will follow––provided, as Matthew Arnold so tersely said, we have sufficient delicacy of perception, subtlety, wisdom, and tact. And, I may add, sufficient freedom from prejudice and mental bias––ah, there is the stumbling block!”
“Matthew Arnold,” ventured Haynerd, “was dubbed a first-class infidel, as I recall it.”