It was not pleasant to Richard to imagine any one with rights over him. It may be that some persist in calling up the false idea of such a one hitherto presented to them, in order to avoid feeling obligation to believe in him. . .

It is one thing to seem to know with the brain, quite another to know with the heart. . .

Naturally. . .his notion of. . .God. . .was very far from being religion yet. The fact was only this—that the idea of a God worth believing in, was coming a little nearer to him, was becoming to him a little more thinkable. . .

Instead of automatically blaming the person who does not believe in a God, we should ask first if his notion of God is a god that ought to be believed in.

Barbara’s internal quest comes first. Independent and thoughtful, her search is bolstered by a deepening friendship with the Wingfolds, who step into the role earlier occupied by Polwarth in Wingfold’s life.

Barbara ultimately forces Richard to reevaluate notions he has long taken for granted. Paralleling Bascombe’s interchange with Wingfold early in Thomas Wingfold, Barbara challenges Richard with an equally probing question: “Tell me honestly, are you sure there is no God? Have you gone through all the universe looking for him and failed to find him? Is there no possible chance that there may be a God?”

By this point, everything around and within her confirms God’s presence to Barbara. To acknowledge him is but to recognize the obvious.

“I do not believe there is,” Richard responds.

“But are you sure?” presses Barbara. “Do you know it, so that you have a right to say it?”

“I cannot say,” Richard finally admits, “that I know it as I know a mathematical fact.”

“Then what right do you have to say there is no God?”

Richard falls silent, then replies, “I will think about what you say.”

And because he is a man of integrity, he does think about what she has said. Eventually he falls in, as had Barbara, with the Wingfolds.

Paralleling the stories of Barbara and Richard, we meet a multitude of characters along the spectrum of spiritual receptivity. Many spiritual seeds are sown in ways that suit different individual needs, all with unique and individual responses. Some, like Leopold and Juliet, respond through a sense of guilt and sin. Others like Helen come to know God through suffering and sorrow. Still others, like Wingfold, Richard, and Barbara, find themselves compelled to respond to the truth-ness of God’s being.

Rolland Hein observes,

“The separate quests for God of Richard and. . .Barbara, form the matrix of the novel. Richard’s quest begins radically; he reacts with earnest unbelief against the evangelical God-in-a-box. . .Barbara’s quest is quite different. Her parents are antagonistic to Christianity, and she, in her open and sweet-spirited manner, is looking for the God behind nature. Typical to MacDonald’s thought, the characters develop Christian faith not from ponderings over scripture passages but from human longings and moral realities carefully and shrewdly considered.” ¹