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been born." They lay stumbling-blocks in men's ways, and cause them
to fall into doubt, perplexity, and misery. I am a believer in
sanctification,--full sanctification,--but I won't go beyond the Bible
in what I say, either on this or any other point. I will go as far as
the Bible, but no farther.

--Christianity is love; and love prompts to diligence in all good works.
To be a Christian is to have the mind of Christ; but the mind of Christ
was a self-sacrificing mind. "He pleased not Himself," but lived and
labored, suffered and died, for the welfare of mankind.

How seldom one hears a sermon on living for the good of others,--on
loving our neighbors as ourselves,--on going about doing good. I have
read sermons on those subjects; but I have not heard one for years. I
have heard _charity_ sermons as they are called, and missionary sermons,
into which a remark or two on doing good were thrown; but a _sermon_ on
the subject I have not heard. Certain preachers talk about preaching
Christ, but they preach any thing rather than Christ.

--I have just been reading a labored and foolish attempt to prove that
Abel was accepted because he offered animals to God, and that Cain was
rejected because he offered the fruits of the ground. There is no end to
the nonsense that can be talked and written on religious subjects. Here
is a man from whom one expected instruction and guidance, wasting his
great powers in worse than idleness. It is a foolish and a dangerous
thing to hang the doctrine of reconciliation or redemption on a slender
hook, when there are strong ones plenty to hang it on. But it is not the
_Christian_ doctrine of redemption for which Mr. W. labors so zealously,
but a theory, a crotchet, an invention of the elders. The doctrine
itself requires no labored proof, no doubtful criticisms, no learned or
unlearned inquiry into Greek and Hebrew etymologies. It lies on the
surface of the sacred page. "The Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." "He died
the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." "He died for all, that
they who live should henceforth live not unto themselves, but unto Him
who died for them and rose again." These theorists make Christianity
disgusting by their metaphysical vanities, and their outlandish jargon.
The idea that it is necessary for me to believe that Abel understood the
Christian doctrine of redemption, is monstrous. There is no pro