He knew there were such things as critical unbelievers, but he had never
encountered one in the flesh. His life had been too excellently
supervised and directed in youth by the spinster aunts. Nor does
materialistic philosophy flourish in a theological seminary. Young men
in training for the ministry are taught to strangle doubt whenever it
rears its horrid head, to see only with the single eye of faith.
Neither the bitterness of experience nor a natural gentleness of spirit
had ever permitted Thompson to know the beauty and wisdom of tolerance.
Whosoever disputed his creed and his consecrated purpose must be in
error. The evangelical spirit glowed within him when he faced the factor
across the little table. Figuratively speaking he cleared for action.
His host, being a hard-headed son of a disputatious race, met him more
than half-way. As a result midnight found them still wordily engaged,
one maintaining with emotional fervor that man's spiritual welfare was
the end and aim of human existence; the other as outspoken--if more
calmly and critically so--in his assertion that a tooth-and-toenail
struggle for existence left no room in any rational man's life for the
manner of religion set forth in general by churches and churchmen.
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