Gordon believed in both predestination - writing that "I believe that not a worm is picked up by a bird without the direct intervention of God" - and free will with humans choosing their own fate, writing "I cannot and do not pretend to reconcile the two". These religious beliefs mirrored differing aspects of Gordon's personality as he believed that he could choose his own fate through the force of his personality and a fatalistic streak often ending his letters with D.V ("Deo volente"-Latin for "God willing" i.e. whatever God wants will be). Gordon's very strong religious feelings led him to devote much time and money to charity both at home and abroad and he was well known for sticking Christian tracts onto city walls and to throw them out of a train window. The Romanian historian Eric Tappe described Gordon as a man who developed his own "very personal peculiar variety of Protestantism".