Her breath came audibly, for she had spoken excitedly.
Then he also rose and came beside her.
"I wrote that book, as I believed you would perceive when you had read it, in order to remove from the minds of the people--those people who have not given the matter a thought--the impression--I know it prevails--that our faith--the truth of our religion--is dependent upon the acceptance as good of such persons as our very religion itself enables us to pronounce evil.

My aim was to show that our faith is not built upon such a foundation of impurity--of imperfection.

The spirit which prevails nowadays--the modern spirit--it is the result of the development of science.

This scientific spirit necessitates the consideration of all the elements of our faith from the standpoint of reason." "Faith--reason ?" "If the Church is to appeal to all men, its method must be scientific.
It is sad to think of all that the Church has lost in the past through the want of wisdom of those who had its best interests at heart, and believed they were doing it good service by opposing scientific research.

They fancied that the faith would not survive the light of truth.