“Gaspard, listen to me. I am no religious man, but I have studied these things a bit. That book of yours is a unique book. Some fools insist on going to it for geology, history and that sort of thing. My professor said to me once a thing that helped me when I was in the sweat box of unbelief and all that. He said something like this:
“This is the book of God and man. The heart of it is a noble and worthy conception of the unseen God—that is its contribution to human thought and life. It is a Revelation of God, a revelation steadily growing in clarity till it finds perfect expression in Jesus the Christ.’
“Oh confound it, Gaspard! God knows there are problems scientific, ethical, philosophical and religious that no man can solve. Get hold of the great simple fundamental fact of God revealed and mediated in the Christ, and let the other things in the meantime go hang. Our faith is the Christian faith, we are no bally Mohammedans. It is, as my professor used to say, Christocentric—Christ centered faith—chew on that and don’t worry.”
Again there was silence for some moments, and then Paul, leaning forward, said in a voice hardly above a whisper, “Dalton, do you believe that psalm is true?” With an oath Dalton sprang to his feet. “Look here, I’m not in the confessional. But,” he shouted, “I do believe it. In spite of hell, in spite of the devil, I do believe it. And when I give that up I’ll blow my brains out.”
“Then,” said Paul, sitting back in his chair, with a deep sigh of relief, “there’s the Keeper you need, Dalton.”
CHAPTER XXIV
“I am afraid Jack is having trouble with his Quarterly Board. He is very late, and I am sure will be terribly tired, for he has had a hard day’s work.”
“My dear Mrs. Robinson, don’t worry about your husband. I am quite sure he will get his own way. You know, he has a gift in that direction.”
“But, Mrs. Gunning, you know, because Mr. Gunning must have told you, how slow some of the deacons are to get his point of view.”
“Never mind, my dear,” said Mrs. Gunning.