human
You are speaking of your judge, when I pressed some question. The mere suggestion of an imperfection in Jesus' character made him shudder in positive pain, and he checked me with raised hand, and the rebuke:
gpt
You are blaspheming; the very thought is a terrible sin . I asked him if he could recommend to me any books which would throw light on the subject:
human
No, no, you have read too much already. You must pray; you must pray. Then, as I said that I could not believe without proof, I was told:
gpt
Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed, and my further questioning was checked by the murmur:
human
O my child, how undisciplined! how impatient! . Truly, he must have found in me--hot, eager, passionate in my determination to know, resolute not to profess belief while belief was absent--but very little of that meek, chastened, submissive spirit to which he was accustomed in the penitents wont to seek his counsel as their spiritual guide. In vain did he bid me pray as though I believed; in vain did he urge the duty of blind submission to the authority of the Church, of yielding, unreasoning faith, which received but questioned not. He had no conception of the feelings of the sceptical spirit; his own faith was solid as a rock-- firm, satisfied, unshakeable; he would as soon have committed suicide as have doubted of the infallibility of the
gpt
Universal Church
human
It is not your duty to ascertain the truth, he told me sternly.
gpt
It is your duty to accept and to believe the truth as laid down by the Church; at your peril you reject it; the responsibility is not yours so long as you dutifully accept that which the Church has laid down for your acceptance. Did not the Lord promise that the presence of the Spirit should be ever with his Church, to guide her into all truth?
human
But the fact of the promise and its value are the very points on which I am doubtful,
gpt
Pray, pray, he said.
human
Father, forgive her, for she knows not what she says.