ot receive it. Jesus
has strengthened, elevated, and purified these natural [295] convictions
in such a way,--by such teachings, by such a life, by such an
unparalleled beauty of character,-that I believe God has breathed a
grace into his soul that he never-has [given] in the same measure and
perfection to any other. Effects must have causes, and such an effect
seems to me fairly to indicate such a cause.

But there are those who cannot take this view; who look upon the gospel
as simply the best exposition of national religion ever given, without
any other breath of inspiration upon the record than such as was
breathed upon the pages of Plato or Epictetus. Now, if they went
further, and disowned the very spirit of Jesus, rejected the very
essence of the gospel, certainly they would not be Christians. But this
they do not; on the contrary, they reverently and heartily accept it,
and seek to frame their lives upon this model. Am I to hold such persons
as outcasts from the Christian fold, to refuse them my sympathy, to
accord them only my "pity "? Certainly, I can take no such ground.

The peculiarities of certain individuals--the "cold abstractions" of
one, and the rash utterances of another--have nothing essentially to
do with the case; nor has the hurt they may be thought to do to our
Unitarian cause anything to do with the essential truth of things. Nor
do I know that extreme Radicalism does us any more harm than extreme
Conservatism. I belong to neither extreme; and my business is, without
regard to public cause or private reputation, to keep, as far as I can,
my own mind right.

The fact is, you are so conservative on every subject,--society,
politics, medicine, religion,--that it is very difficult for you to do
justice to the radical side. But consider that such men as Martineau,
Bartol, Stebbins, [296] Ames, and Abbot are mainly on that side, and
that it will not do to cast about scornful or pitying words concerning
such. As to __ I give him up to you, for I don't like his writing any
better than you do.

I think the great Exposition which you are soon to see may give you a
liberalizing hint. There, the industry of all nations will be exhibited.
All are bent, honestly and earnestly, upon one point,--the development
of the human energies in that direction. And it will infer nothing
against their good character, or their titles to sympathy and respect,
that they differ more or less with regard to the modes and me