uman nature, he will be considered by _some_
a sectarian, controversialist, or heretic. If he unfold what is
above all denominational disputes, he will be fortunate to escape
accusations of transcendentalism, pantheism, spiritualism. If, lucky
man, he go scot-free of such indictment, a last stunning stroke, in
the gantlet he runs, will be sure to fetch him up, in the vague and
unanswerable imputation of being _very peculiar in his views_. If
he insist on the miracles as literal facts, he will be laughed at as
old-fashioned in one pew; if he slight them, he will be mourned over
as unsound in the next. Men grumble at taxes and tolls; alas! nobody
is stopped at so many gates and questioned in so many ways as he. If
he take in hand the tender matter of consoling stricken hearts, the
ecstasy of his visions will not save his topic from being regarded by
some as painful, and by others as a mere shining of the moon. He will
receive special requests not to harrow up the feelings he only meant
to bind up in balm. He may be informed of an aversion, more or less
extensive, to naming the _grave_ or _coffin_ and what it contains,
though he only puts one foot by pall or bier to plant the other in
paradise. If he turn the everlasting verities he is intrusted with to
events transpiring on the public stage, though he never sided with any
party in his life, and has no more committed himself to men than did
his Master, _some_ will be grieved at his _preaching politics_. His
head has throbbed, his heart ached, his eyes were hot and wet
once before he uttered himself; but he must suffer and weep worse
afterwards, because he went too far for one man and not far enough for
another. He is told, one day, that he is too severe on seceders, and
the next, ironically, that, with such merciful sentiments towards
them, he ought always to wear a cravat completely white. One man is
amused at his sermon, and another thinks the same is sad. He will be
asked if he cannot give a little less of one thing or more of another,
as though he were a dealer in wares or an exhibiter of curious
documents for a price, and could take an article from this or that
shelf, or a paper from any one of a hundred pigeon-holes, when, if he
be a servant of the Lord and organ of the Holy Ghost, he has no choice
and is shut up to his errand,--necessity is laid upon him, woe is unto
him if he deliver it not, but, like another Jonah, flee to Tarshish
when the Lord tells him to go to