imilar sentiment. "If you place Christian
perfection too high, you drive it out of the world." And it is certain,
that an infinite amount of hostility to Christianity is owing to the
folly of divines in supplementing its simple and practical doctrines, by
speculative and unintelligible theories. "The one great evidence of the
divinity of Christianity," says one, "the master-evidence, the evidence
with which all other evidences will stand or fall, is Christ Himself
speaking by His own word." But if you add to His words foolish fancies,
or revolting absurdities, or immoral speculations of your own, you
destroy that evidence. You make men infidels.

There are multitudes at the present day to whom you must present
religion in an intelligible and rational, and in a grave and commanding
light, if you would induce them to give it their serious attention. You
can no more interest them in mysteries and nonsense, in speculative and
unpractical fictions, than you can change the course of nature. The time
for theological trifling is gone by. The time has gone by for any form
of religion to make its way which does not consist in solid goodness, or
which teaches doctrines, or uses forms, that do not tend to promote
solid goodness. If religion is to secure the attention of the world,--if
it is to command their respect, their reverence and their love,--if it
is to conquer their hearts, and govern their lives, and satisfy their
souls,--if it is to become the great absorbing subject of man's thought,
and the governing power of our race, it must be so presented, as to
prove itself in harmony with all that is highest and best in man's
nature, with all that is most beautiful and useful in life, and with all
that is beneficent and glorious in the universe.

In a word, old dreamy theologies with their barbarous dialects and silly
notions, must be dropped and left to die, and the Church and the
ministry must live, and act, and talk as men who are dealing with the
grandest and most interesting and important realities.

CHAPTER VII.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS AND THEIR RESULTS.

As my readers will have seen before this, the changes in my views were
rather numerous, if not always of great importance. And the cases I have
given are but samples of many other changes. The fact is, I pared away
from my creed everything that was not plainly Scriptural. I threw aside
all human theories, all mere guesses about religious matters. I also
dismiss