It will be asked by what steps the ascent was made, and what the height from which the new spiritual horizons were discerned; what was the train of thought which brought back the possibility of saying the Church’s Creed? The mental process, if it can be disentangled from an exercise which engaged all the faculties of soul and spirit, was probably that suggested in the words of Amiel: ‘Chacun ne comprend que ce qu’il retrouve en soi.’ But the research and the retrieval were not simply individual and within, they involved the scrutiny of widespread religious instincts, cravings and needs. They were aided above all by the contemplation of martyr deaths and martyr lives, which in their continuous and abiding witness to the faith are seen to constitute a claim to authority.
Miss Beale herself strove to show how the doubting spirit was silenced by an answer of faith, in a little paper called ‘Building,’ which is dated September 8. Here she wrote:—
‘Sweep away external proofs, we must believe in a God and in His love.
‘We see He speaks to His children through the wondrous language of Nature, drawing them to His Heart and teaching ever new trust through it.
‘He shows His Father Heart in the love of the human, ignorant,—for the child.
‘In all ages He has made man feel His Presence in the heart and yearn after Him.
‘There is a long witness down the ages that to those who long for His Presence and follow holiness, He gives the great reward of His conscious sympathy, speaking in their hearts, so that they know it is His Voice. In different ages, in different ways, as men need the language they understand.
‘To Abraham and the prophets, to Socrates, to Buddha teaching the Karma, to Moses the divine writing,—to saints who sought Him in later times.
‘Why impeach the testimony of Christendom as to the Resurrection, if it is what we must believe in, if it is just the good news for which the world was then dying? We know Paul and John believed it, and men believed them then; and the miracle of the Christian Church which is before our eyes, and the teaching of the Christ is found to be the food of the soul, and in prayer as men drink it in, they hand on Sacramental life, which is its own witness. We want that!
‘We can believe that for some inscrutable reason the Eternal educates His children in time.