"Believe me, "Gratefully yours, "T.M."
LETTER X.
"MADAM, "Will you tell me what ground you have for the foundation of the religious theory contained in your book, 'A Romance of Two Worlds'? Is it a part of your own belief? I am MOST anxious to know this, and I am sure you will be kind enough to answer me. Till I read your book I thought myself an Agnostic, but now I am not quite sure of this. I do not believe in the Deity as depicted by the Churches. I CANNOT. Over and over again I have asked myself--If there is a God, why should He be angry? It would surely be easy for Him to destroy this world entirely as one would blow away an offending speck of dust, and it would be much better and BRAVER for Him to do this than to torture His creation. For I call life a torture and certainly a useless and cruel torture if it is to end in annihilation. I know I seem to be blasphemous in these remarks, yet if you only knew what I suffer sometimes! I desire, I LONG to believe. YOU seem so certain of your Creed--a Creed so noble, reasonable and humane--the God you depict so worthy of the adoration of a Universe. I BEG of you to tell me--DO you feel sure of this beneficent all-pervading Love concerning which you write so eloquently? I do not wish to seem an intruder on your most secret thought. I want to believe that YOU believe--and if I felt this, the tenor of my whole life might change. Help me if you can--I stand in real need of help. You may judge I am very deeply in earnest, or I should not have written to you.
"Yours faithfully, "A. W. L."
*****
Of such letters as these I have received enough to make a volume of themselves; but I think the ten I have selected are sufficient to show how ardent and inextinguishable is the desire or STRAINING UPWARD, like a flower to the light, of the human Soul for those divine things which nourish it. Scarcely a day passes without my receiving more of these earnest and often pathetic appeals for a little help, a little comfort, a little guidance, enough to make one's heart ache at the thought of so much doubt and desolation looming cloud-like over the troubled minds of many who would otherwise lead not only happy but noble and useful lives.
When will the preachers learn to preach Christ simply--Christ without human dogmas or differences? When shall we be able to enter a building set apart for sacred worship--a building of finest architectural beauty, "glorious without and within," like the "King's Daughter" of David's psalm--glorious with, light, music, flowers, and art of the noblest kind (for Art is God's own inspiration to men, and through it He should be served), there to hear the pure, unselfish doctrine of Christ as He Himself preached it? For such a temple, the time has surely come--a nook sacred to God, and untainted by the breath of Mammon, where we could adore our Creator "in spirit and in truth." The evils of nineteeth-century cynicism and general flippancy of thought--great evils as they are and sure prognostications of worse evils to come--cannot altogether crush out the Divine flame burning in the "few" that are "chosen," though these few are counted as fools and dreamers. Yet they shall be proved wise and watchful ere long.