His father's fate and the
condition of the family left to welter in poverty, the cruelty of life
as it presented itself to the great mass of the working class, could not
be reconciled with the Church's teaching of an all-loving and omniscient
Father.
With the audacity of youth, he felt that he could easily have
constructed a better universe. He felt that Hell could have no terrors
for people condemned to such hardship and suffering as he saw around
him. Life was colorless for them; stinted of pleasure and beauty, with
merely the joys of the "gill-stoup" on a Saturday night at the local
"store" to look forward to, there was in it no real satisfaction either
for the body or the mind. Would he, indeed, have to wait till after
death before knowing anything of real happiness or comfort? His mind
refused to accept this doctrine so frequently expounded to working class
congregations by ministers, who were themselves comparatively well
endowed with "treasures upon earth."
Life was good, life was glorious if only it could be made as he dreamed
it. This fair earth need be no vale of tears. There were the blue skies,
the white tapestry of cloudland ever varying; there was the wind upon
his face and the sweet rain; there was the purl of mountain brook, the
graceful sweep of the river, the smile of the flowers, the songs of the
birds; the golden splendor of the day and the silver radiance of the
night.
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