Why He Could Not Be an Infidel

“I once met a scholar,” said Bishop Whipple, “who told me that for years he had read every book he could which assailed the religion of Jesus Christ, and he said he would have become an infidel but for three things. ‘First, I am a man. I am going somewhere. Tonight I am a day nearer the grave than I was last night. I have read all such books can tell me. They shed not one solitary ray upon darkness. They shall not take away the only guide and leave me stone-blind. Second, I had a mother. I saw her go down the dark valley where I am going, and she leaned upon an Unseen Arm as calmly as a child goes to sleep on the breast of its mother. I know that this was not a dream. Third, I have three motherless daughters (and he said it with tears in his eyes); they have no protector but myself. I would rather kill them than leave them in this sinful world, if you blot out from it all the teachings of the Gospel.”