Skirmishes And Sketches

ey do. You may poipt out from the narrative of the thief on the cross any moral which the Church has educed and taught, but you may not deviate into lessons of your own learning. You may exhort men to come to Christ, you may even describe his excellences for their imitation, if you will depict only such as the Church has agreed to attribute to him ; but if, suspecting that the traditions of men have somewhat overlaid the original manuscript, you should attempt to erase the one and restore the other, you may count on small furtherance in your work. New England Puritanism is very far from Popery, but it is also very far from a practical acknowledgment, in its true significance, of the right of private judgment. In one respect the children of light are wise in their generation. The " religious newspapers " are probably well acquainted with the tastes and distastes of the "religious public." They know what it will bear, and against what it will rebel; and they doubtless have learned more thoroughly than any others the lesson enunciated by Nie- buhr, ? " How much is there which we may not say aloud for fear of being stoned by the stupid good people ! " But the question is, whether it is not better to be stoned by the stupid good people than to buy them off by pandering to their prejudices. If they are restless under a presentation of opinions differing from their own, shall those opinions be withheld, or shall they be gently instructed in the true nature and u...