172 I GO A-FISHING. 



weapon. The answer to all arguments of skepticism is 

 "I believe." "Why do I believe" did you ask, my ra- 

 tionalistic friend ? Ah, my dear sir, faith is the gift of 

 God. I am not one of your sort who go about bothering 

 for reasons. I believe. You laugh at me ? I can stand 

 that. You sneer ? I can stand that. You know nothing 

 of the sublime meaning of the words " I believe." All 

 the results of argument, study, laborious investigation, 

 human reason, can but produce in the human mind this 

 conviction, to wit, " I think ;" or possibly this, " For the 

 present and until further investigation show other truths I 

 believe." But that is not faith. I would give more for 

 the simple operation of a child's mind who says, " I be- 

 lieve it because my mother told me so," than for your 

 firmest convictions based on the most patient investiga- 

 tions and the universal concord of the schools. If the 

 good men of our day who are fighting this battle with ra- 

 tionalism, would but intrench themselves in the citadel of 

 faith, the contest would cease. Rationalism could not 

 approach them. Nor would it, in that case, gain so many 

 of the uneducated people of the world. For faith is ten- 

 fold more winning than reason. A man who believes and 

 shows that he believes is more powerful than one who 

 reasons, and shows himself ready to abandon his faith 

 when he hears better reasons. 



In the ordinary affairs of life few men believe because 

 of reason. Faith, in the commonest subjects, is without 

 reason. If one were asked why he believed in the con- 

 quests of Alexander the Great, he would reply because of 

 history. But his faith in historical accounts is not faith 

 based on reason or evidence. On the contrary, it would 

 not take five minutes to show him that a few old manu- 

 scripts, not dating very far back, hunted out and printed 



