Pondering over Alison’s note, he suddenly recalled and verified some phrases which had struck him that summer on reading Harnack’s celebrated History of Dogma, and around these he framed his reply. To act as if faith in eternal life and in the living Christ was the simplest thing in the world, or a dogma to which one has to submit, is irreligious…It is Christian to pray that God would give the Spirit to make us strong to overcome the feelings and the doubts of nature… Where this faith, obtained in this way, exists, it has always been supported by the conviction that the Man lives who brought life and immortality to light. To hold fast this faith is the goal of life, for only what we consciously strive for is in this matter our own. What we think we possess is very soon lost.
The feelings and the doubts of nature! The Divine Discontent, the striving against the doubt that every honest soul experiences and admits. Thus the contrast between her and these others who accepted and went their several ways was brought home to him.