as to have met me drew
back. Again, if any one really wishes to discuss with me, he can do so
through the press. I published my views in my _Review_ thirteen or
fourteen years ago. I have published many of them since in a number of
pamphlets, giving all as good an opportunity of discussing them as they
can wish. And there is not the same necessity for a man who has
published his views through the press, to invite discussion on the
platform, as there is for a man who has _not_ given his views through
the press.

The following letter, written to a friend in Newcastle-on-Tyne, may
explain my views on this point a little more fully:--

MY DEAR SIR,--In answer to your question whether I will meet
the Representative of Secularism in debate, I would say, that I had
rather, for several reasons, spend what remains of my life and strength
in peaceful labors as a preacher, a lecturer, and an author. I seem to
have done enough in the way of public discussion. And I have not the
amount of physical or nervous energy, or the strength of voice and
lungs, which I once had. I am suffering, not only from the effects of
age, but from a terrible shock received in a collision on the railway,
causing serious paralysis of my right side, and greatly reducing the
force and action of my heart and brain.

Then I am not the representative of the Church, or of any section of it.
I can only stand forth as the advocate of my own views. Further; there
are many questions connected with the Bible, which appear to me more
fitted for quiet thought and friendly discussion among scholars and
critics, than for debate in a popular audience. On many of those points
Christian divines differ among themselves. They differ, for instance, to
some extent, in their views of Bible inspiration and the sacred canon;
they differ as to the worth of manuscripts, texts, and versions, the
validity of various readings, the origin and significance of
discrepancies in some of the historical and chronological portions of
the Bible, &c., &c. On none of these points do I consider myself called
upon to state or advocate any particular views.

There are however points of a broader and more important character, on
which a public popular discussion might be proper and useful; such as
the general drift and scope of the Bible, or its aim and tendency; the
character and tendency of Christianity as presented in the life and
teachings of its Author, and in the writings of the Apostles;