The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-09-26

half neither believes in nor understands.
But / was brought up in the straight
New England orthodoxy and belong to
the Congregational church, the wing OF it
that lnterprets the old creeds broadly and
is not at all sure that il can fathom the
depth OF the divine plans and mysteries,
past, present, or to come. But with all
my heart | believe in God, the Father, our
Father, and in Christ as the way, the
truth and the life. l cannot solve the
problem OF human sin and misery, nor
draw the line of human accountability,
nor explain how it is true that as a man
soweth, SO shall he also reap But / do
believe that all that perplexes US will one
day be made clear; and meanwhile l am
content TO wait and to trust. In short, |
find in Whittier's Eternal Goodness at
once my creed and my prayer"
The New England poet, Edna Dean
Proctor, thus describes her Christian
faith -
mo religious creed is possible to me
but belief in the boundless love of God
for all His creatures, and in His intent and
power to bring them all ultimately into
harmony with Himself; in accordance
with His perpetual invitation, Come unto
me, all we that labor and are heavy laden,
and | will give you rest; belief that
grief and pain are, in our present state, a
vital necessity of spiritual development,
and that in this or other spheres punish
ment for wrong, though as inflexible in its
workings as the principles of mathematics
or the laws of light and shade, is yet but
disciplinary and remedial. Such a view
brings hope for this life and the life TO
come, gives us sympathy with every
human being and makes God indeed our
Father. More and more as the world be-
comes enlightened, it tends on this broad,
natural basis to unity of thought and
worship"
Mary J. Holmes, the famous novelist,
thus writes:
eli, instead of asking for my religious
views, you had asked what | believe, /
think l should at once have commenced
the Apostles creed, which l repeat in
church so often.
81 believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
Born in New England and reared by
strictly orthodox parents, | was taught
that many things which most young peo-
pie like and do were wicked, and although
those rigid ideas have been softened down
/ am glad for the early training which has
had restraining influence on my whole
life. / am commitment of the episco-
pal church, and know that hand is lead
ing me which will not let me fall if 1 cling
TO it with faith as | am trying to do"
Louise Chandler Moulton let's others
speak her words for her. She says:
Il can, perhaps, best answer your ques-
ton concerning my religious faith by three
quotations, with which am in sympathy.
The first is from Tennyson:
ooh yet we trust that somehow good
Will he the final goal of ill
To pangs of nature, sins OF will,
Defects of doubt and taints of blood.
"That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That no one life shall be destroyed
Or cast rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.
"The second is from Darwin, who was
wont TO say:
"'We cannot know the unknown, but
we can do our duty
"And the third is from Stevenson. who
writes of Fleeming Jenkin that he used
TO say:
GA man must be either very wise or
very vain to venture to break with any
generally received idea of ethics.
"These quotations will reveal to you
that reverence the moral laws founded
on the teaching and experience of the
past-that / am conscious OF my own
blindness as to the meaning and destiny
of life-and that l trust only in that God
who is love"