170 I GO A -FISHING. 



queen — and I can not stop now to remember whether 

 there was. Did the young girl weave romances about her 

 " sovereign lady ?" It seems odd to think of a New En- 

 gland girl looking up to the British throne for the example 

 of all that was womanly, and teaching herself loyalty to 

 the king's wife beyond the sea. Let us not wonder. We 

 will tell our own story about her, and believe it as we tell 

 it. It is just as well so. What, after all, is the need of 

 knowledge in such matters ? I like not this way men have 

 of demanding proof of every thing before they believe it. 

 Her name was Faith, and I tell you faith is the substance 

 of things that we wish. Men go prowling around a story, 

 a tradition, a history, and demand evidence of every state- 

 ment, pick flaws in every weak place, and refuse to be- 

 lieve except they have evidence, and believe when they 

 think they have it. And yet the fundamental point in 

 evidence is faith. Nothing can be proved without taking 

 for the starting-point blind, absolute faith. Forgetting 

 this is the blunder that men are making in their rational- 

 istic theories about the Bible and the Christian religion. 

 They attempt to overthrow, and some of them to their 

 own satisfaction do overthrow, the Bible as a rule of faith 

 and practice, and as a history too, because they demand 

 evidence which is sufficient to satisfy them, and say they 

 can not find it. Why, man, your own existence is known 

 to you only by faith. Feeling is faith. Seeing is faith. 

 Hearing is faith. Every sense you have depends on faith. 

 You say a man said "Yes." I deny it, and say that he 

 said " No." You say you heard it. I deny that you even 

 have the sense of hearing. You only imagine you hear. 

 You say you saw him speak. I deny it ; you only imagine 

 you saw him speak. You have no hearing — no senses ; 

 you do not exist at all : your body is a myth ; your local 



