I saw such portions of it as I examined, fully confirmed
(_e.g._ the supremacy of Scripture). There was only one question
about which I had a doubt, viz. whether it would _work_, for it has
never been more than a paper system....

"So far from my change of opinion having any fair tendency to
unsettle persons as to truth and falsehood viewed as objective
realities, it should be considered whether such change is not
_necessary_, if truth be a real objective thing, and be made to
confront a person who has been brought up in a system _short_ of
truth. Surely the _continuance_ of a person who wishes to go right in
a wrong system, and not his _giving it up_, would be that which
militated against the objectiveness of Truth, leading, as it would,
to the suspicion, that one thing and another were equally pleasing to
our Maker, where men were sincere.

"Nor surely is it a thing I need be sorry for, that I defended the
system in which I found myself, and thus have had to unsay my words.
For is it not one's duty, instead of beginning with criticism,
to throw oneself generously into that form of religion which is
providentially put before one? Is it right, or is it wrong, to begin
with private judgment? May we not, on the other hand, look for a
blessing _through_ obedience even to an erroneous system, and a
guidance even by means of it out of it? Were those who were strict
and conscientious in their Judaism, or those who were lukewarm and
sceptical, more likely to be led into Christianity, when Christ came?
Yet in proportion to their previous zeal, would be their appearance
of inconsistency. Certainly, I have always contended that obedience
even to an erring conscience was the way to gain light, and that
it mattered not where a man began, so that he began on what came
to hand, and in faith; and that anything might become a divine
method of Truth; that to the pure all things are pure, and have a
self-correcting virtue and a power of germinating. And though I have
no right at all to assume that this mercy is granted to me, yet the
fact, that a person in my situation _may_ have it granted to him,
seems to me to remove the perplexity which my change of opinion may
occasion.

"It may be said--I have said it to myself--'Why, however, did you
_publish_? had you waited quietly, you would have changed your
opinion without any of the misery, which now is involved in the
change, of disappointing and distressing people.' I answer, that
th