knows what he does not know; not that what a man does not know he
may say does not exist. I will grant, however, and willingly, that true
science is against Faber's idea of other people's idea of a God. I will
grant also that the tendency of one who exclusively studies science is
certainly to deny what no one has proved, and he is uninterested in
proving; but that is the fault of the man and his lack of science, not
of the science he has. If people understood better the arrogance of
which they are themselves guilty, they would be less ready to imagine
that a strong assertion necessarily implies knowledge. Nothing can be
known except what is true. A negative may be _fact_, but can not be
_known_ except by the knowledge of its opposite. I believe also that
nothing can be really _believed_, except it be true. But people think
they believe many things which they do not and can not in the real
sense.
When, however, Dorothy came to concern herself about the will of God, in
trying to help her father to do the best with their money, she began to
reap a little genuine comfort, for then she found things begin to
explain themselves a little. The more a man occupies himself in doing
the works of the Father--the sort of thing the Father does, the easier
will he find it to believe that such a Father is at work in the world.
In the curate Mr. Drake had found not only a man he could trust, but one
to whom, young as he was, he could look up; and it was a trait in the
minister nothing short of noble, that he did look up to the
curate--perhaps without knowing it. He had by this time all but lost
sight of the fact, once so monstrous, so unchristian in his eyes, that
he was the paid agent of a government-church; the sight of the man's own
house, built on a rock in which was a well of the water of life, had
made him nearly forget it. In his turn he could give the curate much;
the latter soon discovered that he knew a great deal more about Old
Testament criticism, church-history, and theology--understanding by the
last the records of what men had believed and argued about God--than he
did. They often disagreed and not seldom disputed; but while each held
the will and law of Christ as the very foundation of the world, and
obedience to Him as the way to possess it after its idea, how could they
fail to know that they were brothers? They were gentle with each other
for the love of Him whom in eager obedience they called Lord.
The moment his
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