He reproves the young lady, who, whilst tender over killing a fly, does
not hesitate to call the harass of religious doubt "Devil-born."
The Poet says, "one indeed I knew"--who, it may be presumed, was
Hallam--and
"He faced the spectres of the mind
And laid them."
"Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds,[69]
At last he beat his music out,"
and found the serenity of faith.
"There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds."
Unquestioning faith is not the qualification for its champion. True faith
is the result of conflict--"the victory that overcometh the world."
God made and lives in both light and darkness; and is present in the
trouble of doubt, as well as in the comfort of belief. The Israelites were
making idols when God's presence in the cloud was manifested by the
trumpet. They doubted in the midst of sensible proof of the Divine
presence.
The questionings of a speculative mind ought to be tenderly dealt with,
not harshly denounced.