'
IF THEREFORE THE LIGHT IN THEE BE DARKNESS! My friends, that is
exactly my condition, and has been my condition ever since I was
twenty. The light in me has been darkness. The intellectual quality
of my brain which has helped me to attain my present false position
among you . . ."
Here he paused, for there was a distinct movement of surprise among
his audience, which till now, had remained to a man so still that
the buzz of a fly on the window-pane sounded almost as loud as the
drone of a bag-pipe,--then with a faint smile on his lips he
resumed,--
"I hope you all heard my words distinctly! I said, the false
position I have attained among you. I repeat it lest there should be
any mistake. It IS a false position and always has been. I have
never for an instant believed half what I have asked you to believe!
And I have preached to you what I have never dreamed of practising!
Yet I venture to say that I am not worse than most of my brethren.
The intellectual men of France, whether clergy or laity, are in a
difficult situation. Their brains are keen and clear; and,
intellectually speaking, they are totally unable to accept the
Church superstitions of the tenth and twelfth centuries. But in
rejecting superstition it would have been quite possible to have
held them fast to a sublime faith in God and an Immortal Future, had
the Church caught them when slipping, and risen to the mental demand
made upon her resources.
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