"Dick," she said, "I am not troubled at all about the past. My whole
concern is with the present; my earnest looking forward is to the
future. And remember, that which set me completely free to think only of
the present, was when my Ronnie's soul looked out at me from that
strange vision of the past. I cannot say exactly what I believe. But I
know my entire responsibility is to the present; my hope and confidence
are towards the future. I realise, as I have never realised before, the
deep meaning of the words: 'Lord, Thou hast been our Dwelling-place, in
all generations.' I am content to leave it at that."
Dick sat silent; sobered, impressed, by a calm confidence of faith,
which was new to him.
Then he said: "Good for you, Helen, that you can take it so. Personally,
I believe in nothing which I cannot fully explain and understand.
'Faith,' in your sense of the word, has no place in my vocabulary. I was
a very small boy when my faith took to itself wings and flew away; and,
curiously enough, it was while I was singing lustily, in the village
church at Dinglevale: 'As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
shall be; world without end, Amen'!"
"It will come back again," said Helen. "Dick, I know it will come back.
Some day you will come to me and you will say: 'It has come back.' The
thrusting hand and the prying finger are the fashion nowadays, I know.
But the grand old faith which will win out in the end, is the faith
which stands with clasped hands, in deepest reverence of belief; and,
lifting adoring eyes, is not ashamed to say to the revelation of a Risen
Christ: 'My Lord and my God!'"
Dick stirred uneasily in his chair.
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