of tiny exploits, than by
casting ridicule upon them.

But on the other hand it is a wholly false timidity for one who has been
brought up to love and reverence the narrower range of symbols, to choke
and stifle the desires that stir in his heart for the wider range, out
of deference to authority and custom. One must not discard a cramping
garment until one has a freer one to take its place; but to continue
in the confining robe with the larger lying ready to one's hand, from
a sense of false pathos and unreasonable loyalty, is a piece of
foolishness.

There are, I believe, hundreds of men and women now alive, who have
outgrown their traditional faith, through no fault of their own; but who
out of terror at the vague menaces of interested and Pharisaical persons
do not dare to break away. One must of course weigh carefully whether
one values comfort or liberty most. But what I would say is that it is
of the essence of a faith to be elastic, to be capable of development,
to be able to embrace the forward movement of thought. Now so far am I
from wishing to suggest that we have outgrown Christianity, that I would
assert that we have not yet mastered its simplest principles. I believe
with all my soul that it is still able to embrace the most daring
scientific speculations, for the simple reason that it is hardly
concerned with them at all. Where religious faith conflicts with science
is in the tenacity with which it holds to the literal truth of the
miraculous occurrences related in the Scriptures. Some of these present
no difficulty, some appear to be scientifically incredible. Yet these
latter seem to me to be but the perfectly natural contemporary setting
of the faith, and not to be of the essence of Christianity at all.
Miracles, whether they are true or not, are at all events unverifiable,
and no creed that claims to depend upon the acceptance of unverifiable
events can have any vitality. But the personality, the force, the
perception of Christ Himself emerges with absolute distinctness from the
surrounding details. We may not be in a position to check exactly what
He said and what He did not say, but just as no reasonable man can hold
that He was merely an imaginative conception invented by people who
obviously did not understand Him, so the general drift of His teaching
is absolutely clear and convincing.

What I would have those do who can profess themselves sincerely
convinced Christians, in spite of the unce