ne of all creeds it is convincing where it is not attractive;
it turns out to be right, like my father in the garden. Theosophists,
for instance, will preach an obviously attractive idea like
re-incarnation; but if we wait for its logical results, they are
spiritual superciliousness and the cruelty of caste. For if a man is a
beggar by his own pre-natal sins, people will tend to despise the
beggar. But Christianity preaches an obviously unattractive idea, such
as original sin; but when we wait for its results, they are pathos and
brotherhood, and a thunder of laughter and pity; for only with original
sin we can at once pity the beggar and distrust the king. Men of science
offer us health, an obvious benefit; it is only afterwards that we
discover that by health, they mean bodily slavery and spiritual tedium.
Orthodoxy makes us jump by the sudden brink of hell; it is only
afterwards that we realise that jumping was an athletic exercise highly
beneficial to our health. It is only afterwards that we realise that
this danger is the root of all drama and romance. The strongest argument
for the divine grace is simply its ungraciousness. The unpopular parts
of Christianity turn out when examined to be the very props of the
people. The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical
abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you
will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine
like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom. But in
the modern philosophy the case is opposite; it is its outer ring that
is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within.

And its despair is this, that it does not really believe that there is
any meaning in the universe; therefore it cannot hope to find any
romance; its romances will have no plots. A man cannot expect any
adventures in the land of anarchy. But a man can expect any number of
adventures if he goes travelling in the land of authority. One can find
no meanings in a jungle of scepticism; but the man will find more and
more meanings who walks through a forest of doctrine and design. Here
everything has a story tied to its tail, like the tools or pictures in
my father's house; for it is my father's house. I end where I began--at
the right end. I have entered at least the gate of all good philosophy.
I have come into my second childhood.

But this larger and more adventurous Christian universe has one final
mark