To One Whose Religious Belief Has Been Unsettled

Doubts and Doubters

When God takes out of our life any friend who was close and whom we expected to come closer still, we may always say that God knows best. It is not wise to attempt to explain God’s reason for taking our friends out of our life. We would make very foolish mistakes if we were to try to do this. But we are sure, at least, that whatever God does send to us, or allow to come into our life, he will use for blessing to us, if we creep close to him and keep close to him all the while. It seemed to you that this man was necessary to your happiness. But you will learn that God can make you happy without him, since, evidently, it was not part of God’s plan that you should go on through life together. I am glad to know that nothing occurred to make you regret your friendship with him, and that, in looking back over it, the memory is sweet and sacred.

I am sorry that you have become unsettled in your religious belief through the things that friends have been saying to you. I would not want to enter into any discussion with your good friend who has spoken to you so skeptically concerning Christian faith. If he denies that the Bible is the Word of God, sweeping it all away with one brush of his hand, of course then he may say that no one knows about the future and the other life. I suppose he calls himself an agnostic. But you must not let such impressions as these hurt your own Christian faith. I need not enter into any argument to prove to you that the Bible is the Word of God, but let me simply urge you to keep fast hold of your childhood’s faith. Jesus Christ came from God, and he revealed to us what God is like, what life’s future is. More than that, he went down into the grave and then came again from the grave, the only person who has conquered death during all the world’s history. He went there as our Master, our Redeemer, our Saviour. The teachings of Christ are, therefore, full of revelations about the character of God and also contain many revealings about the life that lies beyond. If you read the New Testament reverently, you cannot but believe these things, for the book is full of self-evidence. There are a few agnostics in the world, perhaps some of them sincere in their belief. There are a few skeptics who doubt. But you know that the great mass of people to whom the Word of God has come, who have received it into their hearts with docile spirit, and really desire to know the truth, have found the teachings of the

Bible incontrovertibly true, self-evidently true. If there were no “evidences of Christianity” to which we might turn, I think that I may say to you that my own knowledge of Christ as a personal Friend and Saviour and Helper and Guide for my life is sufficient evidence to make me believe and know that I am immortal, that Christ is the Son of God, that when I leave this world I will pass out of imperfection and failure and stumbling into fuller light, deeper joy and sweeter peace. You will find the greatest comfort in simply getting back into the heart of Christ, putting away all your questions and all your fears, believing Christ to be your Saviour, your Friend, your Master, and then following him implicitly, with trust and joy and peace.

You tell me of what has been said to you — that the death of the little child was a punishment to you for having loved him so much and that because you were rebellious God took him away. I am sure she would not have said that but for the great sorrow in her heart. We must have all manner of patience with those who are passing through great sorrows. One with a broken heart will say things which would not be said at another time. Put out of your mind forever all thought that God ever takes away a child to punish another person. The child’s life was just what God meant it to be, having filled out the little plan which God had for it in his thought. He took it home because home was better for it. It is safer now inside the gates with Christ than it ever could have been in the world outside.

Try to get away from all these feelings and fears and uncanny impressions which seem to be possessing your mind. The simpler your faith the better it will be. Let Christ into your heart, let him be your Teacher and your Friend and guide you ever in the way in which he would have you to walk.