This consideration has been sadly overlooked. Very soon we shall have every one attempting to philosophize Christianity. There are scarcely any, down to the youngest priest, who does not take up the most difficult dogmas, and who does not seek to do battle with those who are styled "unbelievers"— that is the current word nowadays, because, as it would seem, the old term (infidel) has been worn out by long usage, and, therefore, it has been thought necessary to create a new one.
All this is very deplorable. Until quite lately there was hardly a discourse, addressed even to the people exclusively, which did not contain passages intended for unbelievers, or tirades against unbelievers, or apostrophes to unbelievers. The believers who were present were neglected for the sake of the unbelievers who were absent.
It is not rare, indeed, to meet with men who call themselves unbelievers, who assert it, and who write themselves such; but will you find men who are seriously unbelievers, and who do not falter in their negations? A pious priest, who was frequently called upon to attend the sick in the higher classes of society in Paris, was once asked whether he often met with men who had ceased to believe. He replied, good-naturedly:—"Pray, don't allude to the subject. Though I have been long accustomed to minister to great sinners, I have never yet had the good fortune to lay my hand on one who was even a little unbelieving. As regards the faith, men in general are better than their words or their writing either."
As has been well remarked:—"The man who, even in all sincerity, says: 'I don't believe,' often deceives himself. There is in the depths of his heart a root of faith which never dies."
Real unbelief cannot prevail in France. There is too much good sense, too much rectitude in the French mind, and too much moral beauty in the Gospel, to render absolute unbelief possible.
These pretensions to unbelief are generally based on a little ignorance combined with a large amount of feeble-mindedness; so that when one tells you that he does not, that he cannot believe, you should understand him to mean that he is weak and timid. Let us be on our guard against taking such men at their word, for we should thereby show how little knowledge we possess of the human heart. A priest who was called in to attend a person who had spoken and written much against religion, put this question to him:—"When you wrote were you quite sure of your own unbelief?" The other replied, "Alas! Monsieur l'Abbé," … in a deprecating tone, which seemed clearly to imply:—"How young you are, and how little you know of the human heart!"
No; the question between the world and ourselves is not whether the miracles and mysteries of Christianity are believed, but whether the morality of the Gospel is practised. That is the real question at issue. So true is this, that scholars and honest men will not hesitate to say frankly:—"The matter is not one of argument; only retrench from your religion several small commandments of God and the Church, which we need not specify, and then we will be on your side."
That is the secret of unbelief. It is not faith that is wanting, but the courage to do what is right.
How, then, are we to get rid of those preachers who are always taken up with unbelievers? How delivered from those endless sermons addressed to unbelievers? They do us much harm and very little good. The whole thing, besides being ill-judged, is a mistake. By incessantly speaking to men about unbelief, we may end in making them unbelievers; just as we may make a dolt of a man by dint of telling him that he has no sense. Besides, what a blow it is to Christianity to give the people to understand that a notable portion of a great nation has seriously contested its Divine origin! Is not this to suggest the temptation that they too should become unbelievers, since, by so doing, they would be in so numerous and goodly a company? Instead of such a course, begin by telling your audience—but in the accents of profound conviction—that there is not one unbeliever among them; that they all have faith; that they believe as you do; that they are better than they judge themselves to be; that not every one who wishes it can become an unbeliever; that Jesus Christ is too eminent in history and in the world to be regarded, in earnest, as a mere man: … tell them this, and you will do them good, and, besides, you will be telling the truth.