“Come, it’s not so bad as that, Burner, is it?”
“I shan’t be able to preach, to study, to believe anything!” he declared. “How can I when there is nothing to preach, to study, or to believe?”
I could not conceive a more pathetic restraint on a man who sought to get his living by preaching and study.
“Perhaps some of the professors might help you back—at least as far as a belief in God,” I suggested, timidly.
“Oh, if I only could get back there,” he pleaded, “I would pray about the matter, but I can’t pray to nothing, can I?”
I began then to realize how much a dilemma a philosophical honesty could create.
“You are too serious, Burner,” I proposed. “You ought to take some things for granted; not seek to explain everything, you know.”
He looked at me through astonished eyes,
“I will take nothing for granted that cannot bear the test of logic!”
“There,” I cried exultantly, “your intellectual adventures have brought you into German Rationalism: that’s just what’s the matter with you, Burner. You’re not the first one that has been caught. It is a passing experience. Keep on thinking, old fellow, you’ll come back after a time. It looks serious now, but it’s only a phase. Read the biographies of some of the saints; it will help you back to a positive faith, I’m sure.”