It is only a
little foot-rule, and I have to measure Mount Everest
with it; but it's all I have, and I'll never give it up
while there's breath between my lips.
With all respect to you, Bertie, it is very easy to
be orthodox. A man who wanted mental peace and material
advancement in this world would certainly choose to be
so. As Smiles says--"A dead fish can float with the
stream, but it takes a man to swim against it." What
could be more noble than the start and the starter of
Christianity? How beautiful the upward struggle of an
idea, like some sweet flower blossoming out amongst
rubble and cinders! But, alas! to say that this idea was
a final idea! That this scheme of thought was above the
reason! That this gentle philosopher was that supreme
intelligence to which we cannot even imagine a
personality without irreverence!--all this will come to
rank with the strangest delusions of mankind. And then
how clouded has become that fine daybreak of
Christianity! Its representatives have risen from the
manger to the palace, from the fishing smack to the
House of Lords. Nor is that other old potentate in the
Vatican, with his art treasures, his guards, and his
cellars of wine in a more logical position. They are all
good and talented men, and in the market of brains are
worth perhaps as much as they get. But how can they
bring themselves to pose as the representatives of a
creed, which, as they themselves expound it, is based
upon humility, poverty, and self-denial? Not one of them
who would not quote with approval the parable of the
Wedding Guest.
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