第73章 Sunday Table-talk.(3)

Good steering and careful seamanship are immensely important;but of what use are they if one is caught in a tornado or maelstrom,or wedged in among rocks,so that going to pieces is only a question of time?Good seamanship ought to keep one from such a fate,it may be said.So it does in the majority of instances;but often the wisest are caught.If you will realize it,Miss Burton,all in this house,men,women,and children,are about as able to take a ship across the Atlantic,as to make the life voyage wisely and safely.As a rule we only sail and sail.Where we are going,and what we shall meet,the Lord only knows--we don't.I have travelled abroad at times,and have seen a little of society at home,and if growing selfish,mean,and vicious,is going to the bad,than it would seem that more find the bottom than any port.""Oh,hush,Mr.Van Berg,"cried Miss Burton."You will fill the world with a blind,stupid fate and the best one can hope for is the rare good luck or the skilful dodging which enables one to escape the random blows and storms.I believe in God and law,although I confess I can understand neither.As the good Mussulman looks towards Mecca,so I look toward them and pray and hope on.This snarl of life will yet be untangled.""I assure you that I try to do the same,but not with your success,I fear.Your illustration strikes me as unfortunate.The Moslem looks toward Mecca;but what is there in Mecca worth looking toward?If he only thought so,might he not as well look in any other direction?""Please don't talk so,Mr.Van Berg.Don't you see that he can't look in any other direction?He has been taught to look thither till it is part of his nature to do so.In destroying his faith you may destroy him.Pardon me,if I ask you to please remember that faith in God and a future life is more vitally important to some of us than our daily bread.We may not be able to explain it,but we must hope and trust or perish.To go back to your nautical illustration,suppose some who had been wrecked were clinging to a rocky shore,and trying to clamber up out of the cold spray and surf to warmth and safety;would it not be a cruel thing to go along the shore and unloosen the poor numb hands however gently and scientifically it might be done?Loosing that hold means sinking to unknown depths.With complacent self-approval and with learned Athenian airs,many of the savans of the day are virtually guilty of this horrible cruelty.""I do not take sides with the Athenians who called St.Paul a babbler,"said Van Berg,flushing;"yet truth compels me to admit that I could worship more sincerely at the 'Alter of the unknown God,'than before any conception of Deity that modern Theology has presented to my mind.That does not prove much,I am bound to say,for I have never given these subjects sufficient attention to be entitled to have opinions.Still,I like fair play,whatever be the consequences.Your arraignment of talking skeptics is a severe one and strikes me in a new light.Might they not urge,in self-defence,that there was a deeper and darker abyss on the farther side of the rock to which the wrecked were clinging?May they not argue that the grasp of faith may lead to a deeper and more bitter disappointment?""How can they know that?How can they know what shall be in the ages to come?"replied Miss Burton,speaking rapidly."This is the situation:--I am clinging to some hope,something that I believe will be truth which sustains me,and the only force of the skeptic's words is to loosen my grasp.No better support is given,no new hope inspired.Believe me,"she concluded passionately,"I would rather die a thousand deaths by torture than lose my faith that there is a God who will bring order out of this chaos of broken,thwarted lives,of which the world is full,and that those who seek a 'happier shore'will eventually find it.""You will find it,"said Van Berg,in low emphatic tones;and then he added with a shrug,as he rose from the table,"I wish my chances were as good."Ida,who a few weeks before would have heard this conversation with unqualified disgust,had listened with eager eyes and parted lips,and she now said coldly,but with a deep sigh:

"Your God and happy shore,Miss Burton,are too vague and far away.

Troubles and temptations are in our very hearts."Van Berg looked hastily toward her,but she rose and turned her face from him.

Mr.Mayhew shook his head despondently,as if his daughter's words found a deep,sad echo in his own nature.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter;said the wise man of old,'all is vanity and vexation of spirit,'"cried Stanton,with the air of one who was trying to escape from a nightmare.

Miss Burton at once became her old,smiling self.

"You do not quote 'the wise man'correctly,"she said;"but you remind me that he did say 'a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.'

It is like mercy 'twice blessed.'This much,at least,I know is true;and Mr.Van Berg's words have put us all at sea to such an extant that it is well to find one wee solid point to stand on."As the artist passed out he found opportunity to whisper in her ear:

"I cannot tell you how much I honor the woman who with her SADheart makes others 'merry.'"

She blushed and smiled,but only said:"How blind you are,Mr.Van Berg!Can't you perceive that nothing else does me so much good?

Now you see how selfish I am."

Ida saw him whisper,and noted the answering smile and blush.Was it strange that so slight a thing should depress her more than all the evils of the present world and the world to come?

Surely,since human hearts are what they are,a far-away God would be like the sun of the tropics to the ice-bound at the poles.