I saw that to make a
perfect Christian creed, we should have to take something out of every
creed, and leave other things in every creed behind; and that to secure
a perfect exhibition of Christian virtue, and a perfect system of
Christian operations, we should have to borrow from each other habits,
customs, rules and machinery in the same way, and leave parts of our own
to fall into disuse.
And I was willing to act on this principle. I saw that Christ and
Christianity were more and better than all the Churches and all the
creeds on earth put together, and that all the Churches had errors and
faults or failings which Christ and Christianity had not; and I had an
idea that one of the grandest sights conceivable would be to set all the
disciples of Christ to work striving to get rid of everything
anti-christian, and to come as near to Christ, and to each other, as
possible, both in truth and virtue.
But to proceed with my story.
I frequently spoke on religious subjects with my colleagues when we met,
along with the leading laymen, at the houses of our friends. Some new
book, some particular sermon, or some article in the magazine, or
perhaps the fulness of one's own mind with the subjects of one's
studies, would turn the conversation on the state of the Church and the
ministry, and the need of improvement in the theological systems and
dialects of the day, and the manner of handling religious subjects
generally, both in the pulpit and through the press.
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