" 'God intended his creatures to be happy.
" 'Strict obedience would make them unhappy.
" 'Therefore, he does not intend them to obey.' "
"They never put it before them quite so clearly," said Fleda.
"They would startle at it a little. But so they would at the right stating of the case."
"And how would that be, Mr. Carleton?"
"It might be somewhat after this fashion
" 'God requires nothing that is not for the happiness of his
people.
" 'He requires perfect obedience.
" 'Therefore, perfect obedience is for their happiness.'
"But unbelief will not understand that. Did it ever strike you how much there is in those words, 'Come and see?' All that argument can do, after all, is but to persuade to that. Only faith will submit to terms, and enter the narrow gate; and only obedience knows what the prospect is on the other side."
"But isn't it true, Mr. Carleton, that the world have some cause for their opinion judging as they do by the outside? The peculiar pleasures of religion, as you say, are out of sight, and they do not always find in religious people that enlargement and refinement of which you were speaking."
"Because they make unequal comparisons. Recollect that, as God has declared, the ranks of religion are not for the most part filled from the wise and the great. In making your estimate, you must measure things equal in other respects. Compare the same man with himself before he was a Christian, or with his unchristianized fellows, and you will find invariably the refining, dignifying, ennobling, influence of true religion the enlarged intelligence, and the greater power of enjoyment."
"And besides those causes of pleasure-giving that your mentioned," said Fleda, "there is a mind at ease; and how much that is, alone! If I may judge others by myself, the mere fact of being unpoised, unresting, disables the mind from a thousand things that are joyfully relished by one entirely at ease."