It is only after a long course of similar questions that we are ready for the first question in the catechism; then alone can we put the question and the child may be able to understand it.  But what a gap there is between the first and the second question which is concerned with the definitions of the divine nature.  When will this chasm be bridged?  “God is a spirit.”  “And what is a spirit?” Shall I start the child upon this difficult question of metaphysics which grown men find so hard to understand?  These are no questions for a little girl to answer; if she asks them, it is as much or more than we can expect.  In that case I should tell her quite simply, “You ask me what God is; it is not easy to say; we can neither hear nor see nor handle God; we can only know Him by His works.  To learn what He is, you must wait till you know what He has done.”

If our dogmas are all equally true, they are not equally important.  It makes little difference to the glory of God that we should perceive it everywhere, but it does make a difference to human society, and to every member of that society, that a man should know and do the duties which are laid upon him by the law of God, his duty to his neighbour and to himself.  This is what we should always be teaching one another, and it is this which fathers and mothers are specially bound to teach their little ones.  Whether a virgin became the mother of her Creator, whether she gave birth to God, or merely to a man into whom God has entered, whether the Father and the Son are of the same substance or of like substance only, whether the Spirit proceeded from one or both of these who are but one, or from both together, however important these questions may seem, I cannot see that it is any more necessary for the human race to come to a decision with regard to them than to know what day to keep Easter, or whether we should tell our beads, fast, and refuse to eat meat, speak Latin or French in church, adorn the walls with statues, hear or say mass, and have no wife of our own.  Let each think as he pleases; I cannot see that it matters to any one but himself; for my own part it is no concern of mine.  But what does concern my fellow-creatures and myself alike is to know that there is indeed a judge of human fate, that we are all His children, that He bids us all be just, He bids us love one another, He bids us be kindly and merciful, He bids us keep our word with all men, even with our own enemies and His; we must know that the apparent happiness of this world is naught; that there is another life to come, in which this Supreme Being will be the rewarder of the just and the judge of the unjust.  Children need to be taught these doctrines and others like them and all citizens require to be persuaded of their truth.  Whoever sets his face against these doctrines is indeed guilty; he is the disturber of the peace, the enemy of society.  Whoever goes beyond these doctrines and seeks to make us the slaves of his private opinions, reaches the same goal by another way; to establish his own kind of order he disturbs the peace; in his rash pride he makes himself the interpreter of the Divine, and in His name demands the homage and the reverence of mankind; so far as may be, he sets himself in God’s place; he should receive the punishment of sacrilege if he is not punished for his intolerance.