I stated my views with the utmost
freedom, and gave every encouragement to my colleagues to state theirs
with equal freedom in return. When my colleagues read their productions,
I pointed out what I thought erroneous or defective with great plainness
and fidelity. I was anxious both to learn and to teach, and it was my
delight, as it was my duty and business, to endeavor to do both. I was
not, however, so anxious to change the views of my friends as I was to
excite in them a thirst for knowledge. And indeed I did not consider it
of so much importance that a man should accept a certain number of
truths, or particular doctrines, as that he should have a sincere
desire, and make suitable endeavors to understand all truth. It was
idleness, indifference, a state of mental stagnation, a readiness
carelessly to accept whatever might come in the way without once trying
to test it by Scripture or reason, that I particularly disliked; and to
cure or abate this evil, I exerted myself to the utmost.
When I was stationed in Newcastle in 1831, I met with Foster's Essays,
which I read with a great deal of eagerness and pleasure. One of these
Essays is "On some of the Causes by which Evangelical Religion has been
Rendered Unacceptable to Persons of Cultivated Taste?" Among his remarks
on this subject, he has some to the following effect:--
1.
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