[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In my letter which
you published under the above heading on April 2nd, I did not say—not even " in effect " —as Mr. Lindsay S. Garrett in your issue of April 8th in- sinuates, that " one does not need to school one's intelligence in perusal of the Bible as one does in the perusal of Kant ; mere faith, it appears, is good enough for that." I suggested quite clearly that your original contributor might by a sincere study of the Bible train and strengthen her faith, as by the study of Kant she trained and strengthened her intelligence. Perhaps Mr. Garrett, if he too adopted this suggestion, would be less inclined to question the power of " mere " faith and its validity as a means of arriving at a knowledge of God. I readily admit, and have never gainsaid, that the Bible is a worthy object of study for the best intellects, many of which indeed have been applied to this task. I stated, and remain convinced, that an intellectual conviction of the existence of God is not in itself enough to persuade anyone to become a Christian.
I do not intend to be drawn into discussions as to the difference between faith and the Faith, nor as to the relative merits of the Old and New Testaments. Others may be prepared to chop logic over these issues. For myself, in concluding this, my final contribution to this discussion, may I, in answer to Mr. Garrett's hint that I am mentally unsound, question whether he is not clever rather than wise ?
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