d backslidings. With all their
faults they were the lights of the world, and the salt of the earth.
They are so still. They were so in the days of which I write. And the
same may be said of other churches. They fall very far short of the
perfection of Christian knowledge and holiness, but they are as far in
advance of a godless world, as Christianity is in advance of them. I
think it no objection to Christians or to Christian churches that they
do not at once embody and exemplify Christian truth and virtue in all
their fullness, any more than I think it an objection to men of science
and scientific associations that they do not know and set forth all the
laws of the material universe. Men are finite, while Nature and
Christianity are infinite. Christianity will always be ahead of
churches, and nature will always be ahead of science, as God will always
be ahead of man. I would have churches and ministers improve, and I
would tell them of their faults and shortcomings that they may see where
improvement is wanted, but I would not on any account do them injustice,
or give countenance to the infidel slander that the church is worse than
the godless world, or a twentieth part as bad.

And though I would explain how unhappily I was influenced by the errors
and misdoings of my brethren, that I may make my apostacy from Christ
intelligible, I have no desire to make the impression that all with whom
I came in uncomfortable collision were great sinners, while I was a meek
and faultless saint. I know the contrary. There were errors and failings
on both sides. I may sometimes think 'I was more sinned against than
sinning,' but at other times I am ashamed and confounded at my great and
grievous errors. God forgive me. I was dreadfully tried at times by my
brethren; but my brethren were tried by me at other times past all
endurance. God only knows which was most to blame; but I was bad enough.
If either I or my brethren had been as wise and good as men should
strive to be, both they and I might have had a very different story to
tell; a story much more agreeable to our readers and much more
creditable to ourselves. But the past is past, and my brethren, most of
them, have gone to judgment, and I am hastening after; and it behooves
me to tell as fair a story, and to tell it in as meek and lowly and
loving a spirit as possible. And I here declare, that if any expression
of bitterness, or any statement savoring of harshness or injustice,