Prev | Current Page 443 | Next

Bates, Arlo, 1850-1918

"The Puritans"

I hope I don't shock you. I lie awake in the night a
good deal, and my mind seems clearer than it used to be. All the
religions seem to have a real, tangible human centre, a personality
that human beings can appreciate and believe in. Mrs. Crapps was so
real and so near at hand that I could have faith in her; now that that
is gone there isn't anything left for me. I can't believe in her, and
she has destroyed the Possibility of my believing in anybody else."
Berenice put out her hand in the growing dusk, caressing the thin
fingers of the sick woman.
"But--but," she hesitated, "she hasn't destroyed your faith in--in
everything, has she?"
"No, dear; she hasn't touched my belief in God; but it makes me
ashamed to see how different a thing it is to believe in what we see
and touch, from having a genuine faith in what we do not see. I have a
faith in my soul still; the other was only a faith of the body. Perhaps
it had only to do with the body, and it is not so bad to have lost it."
"Oh, Cousin Anna," Berenice murmured, tears choking her voice, "I can't
bear to see you getting farther and farther off every day, and to feel
so helpless.


Pages:
431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455