wn, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things,"

Surely our schisms may be healed if there be a Saviour thus to heal
them!

One word in conclusion. Neither the letter nor the spirit of the
apostle's teaching condemn a warm and firm attachment to "our own
Church," but antagonism only to other Churches. A soldier may love,
and ought to love his own regiment with peculiar affection, more
especially if he has been born in it, and brought up from childhood,
as it were, in its ranks. And it should be his honest pride to see
that it is one of the best drilled, most orderly, most efficient, and
bravest in the whole army. But that is no reason why he should
go about with a drum to recruit from, weaken, or break up other
regiments; or why he should deny that there _are_ other regiments
which equally belong to the grand army, and may be even more efficient
than his own, though they do not wear the exact pattern of uniform, or
may charge on horseback while his marches on foot, or possess cannon
while his own have but small arms. Why should he be jealous of their
achievements? Why should he be disposed to fight against them instead
of against the common enemy? And, worse than all, why assert and boast
that this one regiment of his is _the_ army, while all others are mere
unauthorised volunteers, or enemies in disguise? It is full time for
sensible men to give up this vain boasting, proud antagonism, and
irritating ambitious proselytism.

Instead, therefore, of any man attempting, what is impossible during a
lifetime, to understand the distinctive principles of each of the many
sections of the Christian Church, so as to "join" that one which seems
most "pure" and "scriptural," he is much better, as a rule, to remain,
if it is at all possible for him, in the Church of his fathers, in
which he was baptized and reared, and to do all in his power, by his
example, his prayers, and his steady, manly, firm attachment, to
make "his own Church" more efficient, and to permit others, without
interference, to do the same. Thus may a man be a good Presbyterian
in Scotland, and also a good Episcopalian in England, or possibly a
Nonconformist in both, unless he believes in the Divine origin and
authority of some one ecclesiastical system, and the mundane origin of
all others. With perfect consistency and sincer