Perhaps it was impossible
that one so literally a child of nature, and who had led such an
open-air life from his childhood, could possibly have done otherwise
than to rebel. It was the gipsy in him that revolted against
Christianity and every other form and convention of civilised life, and
claimed a freedom far beyond any which he ever used. We read that in his
sixth year, when already he found the God of the pulpit remote and
forbidding, he was nevertheless conscious of a benign and beautiful
presence. On the shore of Loch Long he built a little altar of rough
stones beneath a swaying pine, and laid an offering of white flowers
upon it. In the college days he turned still more definitely against
orthodox Presbyterianism; but he retained all along, not only belief in
the central truths that underlie all religions, but great reverence and
affection for them.
It is probable that towards the close he was approaching nearer to
formal Christianity than he knew. We are told that he "does not
reverence the Bible or Christian Theology in themselves, but for the
beautiful spirituality which faintly breathes through them like a vague
wind blowing through intricate forests.
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